Systems and methods for obtaining and using augmentation data and for sharing usage data

ABSTRACT

Computationally implemented methods and systems include receiving augmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations, the one or more first augmentations having been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scene that was remotely displayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, displaying one or more second augmentations in a second augmented view of a second actual scene, the displaying of the one or more second augmentations being in response, at least in part, to the augmentation data, and transmitting to the remote AR device usage data that indicates usage information related at least to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.

PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/709,465, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OBTAINING AND USINGAUGMENTATION DATA AND FOR SHARING USAGE DATA, naming GENE FEIN; ROYCE A.LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W. LORD; MARK A. MALAMUD; JOHN D.RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as inventors, filed 10, Dec. 2012,which is currently co-pending or is an application of which a currentlyco-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

-   -   For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the        present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S.        patent application Ser. No. 13/690,003, entitled SYSTEMS AND        METHODS FOR SHARING AUGMENTATION DATA, naming GENE FEIN;        ROYCE A. LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W. LORD; MARK A.        MALAMUD; JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as        inventors, filed 30, Nov. 2012, which is currently co-pending or        is an application of which a currently co-pending application is        entitled to the benefit of the filing date, and which is a        continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/689,372,        entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHARING AUGMENTATION DATA,        naming GENE FEIN; ROYCE A. LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W.        LORD; MARK A. MALAMUD; JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T.        TEGREENE as inventors, filed 29, Nov. 2012.    -   For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the        present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S.        patent application Ser. No. 13/673,070, entitled PRESENTING AN        AUGMENTED VIEW IN RESPONSE TO ACQUISITION OF DATA INFERRING USER        ACTIVITY, naming GENE FEIN; ROYCE A. LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD;        ROBERT W. LORD; MARK A. MALAMUD; JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.;        CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as inventors, filed 9, Nov. 2012, which is        currently co-pending or is an application of which a currently        co-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing        date, and which is a continuation of U.S. patent application        Ser. No. 13/672,575, entitled PRESENTING AN AUGMENTED VIEW IN        RESPONSE TO ACQUISITION OF DATA INFERRING USER ACTIVITY, naming        GENE FEIN; ROYCE A. LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W. LORD;        MARK A. MALAMUD; JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as        inventors, filed 8, Nov. 2012.    -   For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the        present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S.        patent application Ser. No. 13/648,012, entitled FORMATTING OF        ONE OR MORE PERSISTENT AUGMENTATIONS IN AN AUGMENTED VIEW IN        RESPONSE TO MULTIPLE INPUT FACTORS, naming GENE FEIN; ROYCE A.        LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W. LORD; MARK A. MALAMUD;        JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as inventors, filed        9, Oct. 2012, which is currently co-pending or is an application        of which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the        benefit of the filing date, and which is a continuation of U.S.        patent application Ser. No. 13/646,147, entitled FORMATTING OF        ONE OR MORE PERSISTENT AUGMENTATIONS IN AN AUGMENTED VIEW IN        RESPONSE TO MULTIPLE INPUT FACTORS, naming GENE FEIN; ROYCE A.        LEVIEN; RICHARD T. LORD; ROBERT W. LORD; MARK A. MALAMUD;        JOHN D. RINALDO, JR.; CLARENCE T. TEGREENE as inventors, filed        5, Oct. 2012.

If an Application Data Sheet (ADS) has been filed on the filing date ofthis application, it is incorporated by reference herein. Anyapplications claimed on the ADS for priority under 35 U.S.C. §§119, 120,121, or 365(c), and any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent,etc. applications of such applications, are also incorporated byreference, including any priority claims made in those applications andany material incorporated by reference, to the extent such subjectmatter is not inconsistent herewith.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to and/or claims the benefit of theearliest available effective filing date(s) from the following listedapplication(s) (the “Priority Applications”), if any, listed below(e.g., claims earliest available priority dates for other thanprovisional patent applications or claims benefits under 35 USC §119(e)for provisional patent applications, for any and all parent,grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the PriorityApplication(s)). In addition, the present application is related to the“Related Applications,” if any, listed below.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

None

The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has published a notice to theeffect that the USPTO's computer programs require that patent applicantsreference both a serial number and indicate whether an application is acontinuation, continuation-in-part, or divisional of a parentapplication. Stephen G. Kunin, Benefit of Prior-Filed Application, USPTOOfficial Gazette Mar. 18, 2003. The USPTO further has provided forms forthe Application Data Sheet which allow automatic loading ofbibliographic data but which require identification of each applicationas a continuation, continuation-in-part, or divisional of a parentapplication. The present Applicant Entity (hereinafter “Applicant”) hasprovided above a specific reference to the application(s) from whichpriority is being claimed as recited by statute. Applicant understandsthat the statute is unambiguous in its specific reference language anddoes not require either a serial number or any characterization, such as“continuation” or “continuation-in-part,” for claiming priority to U.S.patent applications. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Applicantunderstands that the USPTO's computer programs have certain data entryrequirements, and hence Applicant has provided designation(s) of arelationship between the present application and its parentapplication(s) as set forth above and in any ADS filed in thisapplication, but expressly points out that such designation(s) are notto be construed in any way as any type of commentary and/or admission asto whether or not the present application contains any new matter inaddition to the matter of its parent application(s). If the listings ofapplications provided above are inconsistent with the listings providedvia an ADS, it is the intent of the Applicant to claim priority to eachapplication that appears in the Priority Applications section of the ADSand to each application that appears in the Priority Applicationssection of this application. All subject matter of the PriorityApplications and the Related Applications and of any and all parent,grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the PriorityApplications and the Related Applications, including any priorityclaims, is incorporated herein by reference to the extent such subjectmatter is not inconsistent herewith.

SUMMARY

In one or more various aspects, a method includes but is not limited toreceiving augmentation data associated with one or more firstaugmentations, the one or more first augmentations having been includedin a first augmented view of a first actual scene that was remotelydisplayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, displaying one ormore second augmentations in a second augmented view of a second actualscene, the displaying of the one or more second augmentations being inresponse, at least in part, to the augmentation data, and transmittingto the remote AR device usage data that indicates usage informationrelated at least to usage or non-usage of the received augmentationdata, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display oneor more third augmentations. In some implementations, at least one ofthe receiving augmentation data associated with one or more firstaugmentations, the one or more first augmentations having been includedin a first augmented view of a first actual scene that was remotelydisplayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, displaying one ormore second augmentations in a second augmented view of a second actualscene, the displaying of the one or more second augmentations being inresponse, at least in part, to the augmentation data, or transmitting tothe remote AR device usage data that indicates usage information relatedat least to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data, theusage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or morethird augmentations being performed by a machine, article ofmanufacture, or composition of matter. In addition to the foregoing,other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and textforming a part of the disclosure set forth herein.

In one or more various aspects, one or more related systems may beimplemented in machines, compositions of matter, or manufactures ofsystems, limited to patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101. Theone or more related systems may include, but are not limited to,circuitry and/or programming for effecting the herein-referenced methodaspects. The circuitry and/or programming may be virtually anycombination of hardware, software, and/or firmware configured to effectthe herein-referenced method aspects depending upon the design choicesof the system designer, and limited to patentable subject matter under35 USC 101.

In one or more various aspects, a system includes, but is not limitedto, means for receiving augmentation data associated with one or morefirst augmentations, the one or more first augmentations having beenincluded in a first augmented view of a first actual scene that wasremotely displayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, means fordisplaying one or more second augmentations in a second augmented viewof a second actual scene, the displaying of the one or more secondaugmentations being in response, at least in part, to the augmentationdata, and means for transmitting to the remote AR device usage data thatindicates usage information related at least to usage or non-usage ofthe received augmentation data, the usage data to facilitate the remoteAR device to display one or more third augmentations. In addition to theforegoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings,and text forming a part of the disclosure set forth herein.

In one or more various aspects, a system includes, but is not limitedto, circuitry for receiving augmentation data associated with one ormore first augmentations, the one or more first augmentations havingbeen included in a first augmented view of a first actual scene that wasremotely displayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, circuitryfor displaying one or more second augmentations in a second augmentedview of a second actual scene, the displaying of the one or more secondaugmentations being in response, at least in part, to the augmentationdata, and circuitry for transmitting to the remote AR device usage datathat indicates usage information related at least to usage or non-usageof the received augmentation data, the usage data to facilitate theremote AR device to display one or more third augmentations. In additionto the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims,drawings, and text forming a part of the disclosure set forth herein.

In one or more various aspects, a computer program product, comprising asignal bearing non-transitory storage medium, bearing one or moreinstructions including, but not limited to, receiving augmentation dataassociated with one or more first augmentations, the one or more firstaugmentations having been included in a first augmented view of a firstactual scene that was remotely displayed at a remote augmented reality(AR) device, displaying one or more second augmentations in a secondaugmented view of a second actual scene, the displaying of the one ormore second augmentations being in response, at least in part, to theaugmentation data, and transmitting to the remote AR device usage datathat indicates usage information related at least to usage or non-usageof the received augmentation data, the usage data to facilitate theremote AR device to display one or more third augmentations. In additionto the foregoing, other computer program product aspects are describedin the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the disclosure setforth herein.

In addition to the foregoing, various other method and/or system and/orprogram product aspects are set forth and described in the teachingssuch as text (e.g., claims and/or detailed description) and/or drawingsof the present disclosure.

The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications,generalizations, inclusions, and/or omissions of detail; consequently,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary isillustrative only and is NOT intended to be in any way limiting. Otheraspects, features, and advantages of the devices and/or processes and/orother subject matter described herein will become apparent by referenceto the detailed description, the corresponding drawings, and/or in theteachings set forth herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

For a more complete understanding of embodiments, reference now is madeto the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings. The use of the same symbols in different drawings typicallyindicates similar or identical items, unless context dictates otherwise.The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description,drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments maybe utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from thespirit or scope of the subject matter presented here.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show the front and back views of an augmented reality(AR) device that is in the form of a smartphone 10.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show the front and back views of an augmented reality(AR) device that is in the form of a tablet computer 20.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show different views of an augmented reality (AR) devicethat is in the form of a goggle 30.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show different views of an augmented reality (AR) devicethat is in the form of a goggle 40.

FIG. 5A shows an example environment 500 in which a first user 51 who isusing a first augmented reality (AR) device 50* exchanges augmentationdata 55 and usage data 56 with a second user 52 who is using a second ARdevice 70.

FIG. 5B shows another example environment 502 in which a first user 51who is using an augmented reality (AR) device 50* exchanges augmentationdata 55 and usage data 56 with a second user 52 who is using a second ARdevice 70.

FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S,6T, and 6U show exemplary actual and augmented views of various scenesfrom the real environment.

FIG. 7A shows a block diagram of particular implementation of the ARdevice 70* illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIG. 7B shows a block diagram of yet another implementation of the ARdevice 70* illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIG. 8A shows another perspective of the augmentation data acquiringmodule 102* of FIGS. 7A and 7B (e.g., the augmentation data acquiringmodule 102′ of FIG. 7A or the augmentation data acquiring module 102″ ofFIG. 7B) in accordance with various implementations.

FIG. 8B shows the augmentation presenting module 104* of FIGS. 7A and 7B(e.g., the augmentation presenting module 104′ of FIG. 7A or theaugmentation presenting module 104″ of FIG. 7B) in accordance withvarious implementations.

FIG. 8C shows the usage data relaying module 106* of FIGS. 7A and 7B(e.g., the usage data relaying module 106′ of FIG. 7A or the usage datarelaying module 106″ of FIG. 7B) in accordance with variousimplementations.

FIG. 8D shows another perspective of the user interface 110 of FIGS. 7Aand 7B.

FIG. 8E shows another perspective of the one or more sensors 120 ofFIGS. 7A and 7B.

FIG. 9 is a high-level logic flowchart of a process, e.g., operationalflow 900, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10A is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation data receiving operation902 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 10B is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation data receiving operation902 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 10C is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation data receiving operation902 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 10D is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation data receiving operation902 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11A is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation displaying operation 904of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11B is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation displaying operation 904of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11C is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation displaying operation 904of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11D is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation displaying operation 904of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11E is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the augmentation displaying operation 904of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12A is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the usage data transmitting operation 906of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12B is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the usage data transmitting operation 906of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12C is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the usage data transmitting operation 906of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12D is a high-level logic flowchart of a process depictingalternate implementations of the usage data transmitting operation 906of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar or identical components oritems, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodimentsdescribed in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are notmeant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and otherchanges may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of thesubject matter presented here.

Throughout this application, examples and lists are given, withparentheses, the abbreviation “e.g.,” or both. Unless explicitlyotherwise stated, these examples and lists are merely exemplary and arenon-exhaustive. In most cases, it would be prohibitive to list everyexample and every combination. Thus, smaller, illustrative lists andexamples are used, with focus on imparting understanding of the claimterms rather than limiting the scope of such terms.

The evolution of personal computing technology over the past 40 yearshas been simply breathtaking, evolving from clunky large personaldesktop computing devices with poor resolution television monitors andlimited functionality to sleek and powerful mobile computing devicessuch as tablet computers and smartphones. As the personal computingtechnology continues to evolve a number of promising and exciting newtechnologies have emerged that are rapidly being developed forwidespread personal use. One of the most promising new technologies isAugmented Reality (or simply “AR”).

Wikipedia™ defines Augmented Reality as “a live, direct or indirect,view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmentedby computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics orGPS data.” In order to facilitate understanding of the various concepts,processes, and systems to be discussed herein, certain basic terms andphrases will now be introduced and elucidated. For example, in thefollowing the terms “augmentation,” “augmented view,” “actual view,”“scene from a real environment,” or variations thereof, are repeatedlyrecited. For purposes of the following, the phrase “scene” or “scenefrom a real environment” will be in reference to an actual or true(visual) scene from an actual physical environment (as opposed to avirtual environment or world) in the proximate vicinity of an AR deviceand/or the user of the AR device (herein “AR device user”). For purposesof the following description, the phrase “actual view” is in referenceto a true or unmodified (or substantially true or unmodified) view of ascene from the real environment. The phrase “augmented view,” incontrast, is in reference to a view of an actual scene from the realenvironment that has been augmented (e.g., modified) and that may bepresented (e.g., displayed or transmitted) through an AR system. An“augmentation” is any modification, revision, or addition that may beincluded in an augmented view of a scene from the real environment andthat may not be present in the actual view of the scene from the realenvironment.

There are at least two types of computing devices that can be used toimplement AR technology: “specifically-designed” AR systems and“nonspecifically-designed” AR systems. Nonspecifically-designed ARsystems are general purpose computing systems or devices that can beconfigured to implement AR functionalities by executing, for example, ARsoftware applications. Examples of such devices include, for example,personal mobile computing/communication devices such as tablet computersand smartphones. In contrast, specifically-designed AR systems aresystems or devices that have been specifically designed to implement ARfunctionalities. Specifically-designed AR systems may come in a varietyof forms but are most commonly in the form of a head-mounted display(HMD) such as in the form of eyeglasses, goggles, helmet, and so forth.These devices are sometimes referred to as “wearable computing devices.”Typically these wearable computing devices will include one or morefeatures that allow a user to wear the device on his/or her head (e.g.,a coupling device for coupling the AR device to the user's head). Suchfeatures include, for example, a strap, a pair of earpieces or templepieces (e.g., the parts of goggles or glasses that are attached to theframe of, for example, a glasses and that extend out to the ears of theuser holding the eyeglasses frame to the face of the user—see example 42a or 42 b of FIG. 4A, or in the case of a helmet-type AR device thehelmet structure itself). Alternatively, a wearable computing device maybe made wearable by having a feature (e.g., one or more clips, strapssuch as a Velcro strap, magnets, and/or hooks) that allows it to beattached or clipped onto the frame of a pair glasses or goggles thusallowing the AR device to be coupled to the user's head.

All of these devices (e.g., specifically-designed AR systems andnonspecifically-designed AR systems) will generally have certain commoncomponents including one or more cameras (e.g., digital, web, and/or HDcameras), one or more displays (e.g., LCD displays or see-throughdisplays), and logic for processing data generated by the one or morecameras and/or for generating and merging computer generated data orimages with actual views or images of scenes from real world environmentto generate augmented views of the scenes of the real world environment.Although most if not all current AR systems will contain these samebasic components (e.g., camera, display, etc.), they can, however, takeon a wide range of form factors as briefly described above (e.g., tabletcomputer, goggles, and so forth).

FIGS. 1A and 1B, 2A and 2B, 3A and 3B, and 4A and 4B illustrate some ofthe form factors that AR devices can take on. For example, FIG. 1Adepicts the front-side 12 (e.g., the side of a personalcomputing/communication device that a display is located or disposedon), respectively, of a nonspecifically-designed AR system that is inthe form of a smartphone 10 and that can be configured or designed toimplement one or more AR functionalities. FIG. 1B shows the backside 14(e.g., the side of a personal computing/communication device that isopposite of the front-side 12 personal computing/communication device)of the exemplary smartphone 10 of FIG. 1A. The exemplary smartphone 10may include a display 18, such as a touchscreen or liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), on the front-side 12 of the smartphone 10. The smartphone10 of FIGS. 1A and 1B is also depicted as having lens 16 a for aforward-facing camera on the front-side 12 and lens 16 b for arear-facing camera on the back-side 14 of the smartphone 10. Whenemployed to provide one or more augmented views of one or more scenes ofreal world environments, the display 18 may be used in order to displaythe augmented views. In some cases, the forward-facing camera associatedwith lens 16 a may be used in order to track the gaze or focus of one ormore eyes of a user. The rear-facing camera that is associated with lens16 b, on the other hand, may be used to capture (e.g., sense and/orrecord) actual scenes of real world environments in order to generateaugmented views of those actual scenes. The generated augmented viewsmay then be displayed through display 18.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrates the front-side 22 (e.g., the side of apersonal computing/communication device that a display is located ordisposed on) and the backside 24 (e.g., the side of thecomputing/communication device that is opposite of the front-side of thecomputing/communication device), respectively, of anonspecifically-designed AR system that is in the form of a tabletcomputer 20 and that can be configured or designed to implement one ormore AR functionalities. In FIGS. 2A and 2B, the tablet computer 20 isdepicted as having a display 28, such as a touchscreen, on thefront-side 22 of the tablet computer 20. The tablet computer 20 is alsodepicted as having lens 26 a for a forward-facing camera on thefront-side 22 and lens 26 b for a rear-facing camera on the back-side 24of the tablet computer 20.

In some cases, the forward-facing camera associated with lens 26 a maybe used in order to track the gaze or focus of one or more eyes of auser. The rear-facing camera associated with lens 26 b on the back-side24 of the tablet computer 20 may be used to capture (e.g., sense and/orrecord) actual scenes of real world environments in order to generateaugmented views of those actual scenes. Note that in some cases, asingle camera may be coupled to both lens 26 a and lens 26 b, thus thesingle camera can act as both a forward-facing and rear-facing camera.The generated augmented views may then be displayed through display 28.References to “real environment” or “real world environment” herein maybe in reference to true or actual physical environments rather than to avirtual environment or virtual world.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a specifically-designed AR system in the formof video goggles 30 that can implement one or more AR functionalities.In particular, FIG. 3A illustrates a perspective view of the videogoggle 30, which includes, among other things, a frame piece 32, a lefttemple 31 a, and a right temple 31 b. Disposed on the front-side 39 a ofthe frame piece 32 are two forwarding looking lenses 34 a and 34 b for apair of corresponding forward-looking cameras for capturing (e.g.,recording, scanning, sensing, etc.) actual scenes of real worldenvironments in order to generate augmented views of those actualscenes. FIG. 3B illustrates a view of the backside 39 b of the framepiece 32 of the exemplary video goggles 30 of FIG. 3A. The backside 39 bof the frame piece 32 is depicted as including a left display 38 a and aright display 38 b, a rim 35 surrounding the left display 38 a and theright display 38 b, a left lens 36 a for a left camera and a right lens36 b for a right camera, and a left hinge 33 b and a right hinge 33 a.The rim 35 that may surround the left display 38 a and the right display38 b may be a soft, semi-soft, or hard rim that in some cases may act asa cushion, as well as a barrier to prevent excess light from entering auser's field of view (thus allowing the user to better view the left andright displays 38 a and 38 b).

The forward-looking cameras associated with the forward-looking lens 34a and 34 b may be used to capture (e.g., sense and/or record) actualscenes of real world environments in order to generate augmented viewsof those actual scenes. These augmented views that are generated maythen be displayed through displays 38 a and 38 b. Note that inalternative implementations, the video goggle 30 may only employ asingle forward-looking lens for a single forward-looking camera ratherthan employing two forward-looking lenses 34 a and 34 b for twoforward-looking cameras as illustrated in FIG. 3A. In suchimplementations, the single forward-looking lens may be disposed at themid-point or bridge part of the frame piece 32 above where a user's nosewould be positioned. The output associated with the corresponding singleforward-looking camera would then be displayed through both displays 38a and 38 b.

The video goggles 30 may also include inward-looking lenses 36 a and 36b as depicted in FIG. 3B for two inward-looking cameras (not shown) onthe backside 39 b of the frame piece 32 and disposed between thedisplays 38 a and 38 b and rim 35. The inward-looking cameras may beemployed in order to track the movements as well as the gaze and focusof one or more eyes of a user. Note that alternatively, the videogoggles 30 may include fewer or more inward-looking cameras andinward-looking lenses. Further, there is no requirement that acorresponding camera is needed for each inward-looking lens as it may bepossible to employ, for example, a single camera for viewing throughmultiple lenses.

The frame piece 32, the left temple 31 a, and the right temple 31 b mayhouse various electronics that are designed for, for example, processingdata provided by the various cameras (e.g., forward-looking as well asbackward looking cameras), and for generating augmented views of scenesfrom real world environment that may be displayed through displays 38 aand 38 b. The types of electronics that may be included with the videogoggles 30 may include, for example, the same or similar types ofelectronics (e.g., microprocessors, controllers, network interface card,memory, etc.) that are often found in mobile computing/communicationdevices such as the smartphone 10 or the tablet computer 20 describedearlier. The left temple 31 a and the right temple 31 b are featuresthat allow the AR system to be worn on a user's head.

Turning now to FIGS. 4A and 4B, which illustrate a specifically-designedAR system that is in the form of electronic glasses 40 that canimplement one or more AR functionalities. In particular, FIG. 4Aillustrates a perspective view of the electronic glasses 40, whichincludes, among other things, a frame piece 41 (which further includes aleft rim piece 43 a, a right rim piece 43 b, and a bridge 44), a lefttemple 42 a, a right temple 42 b, a left lens 45 a, a right lens 45 b, asee-through display 46, and electronics housing 47 (e.g. note that insome cases, the electronics housing 47 may include an optional clip 47 afor coupling the electronics housing 47 to the right temple 42 b). Theframe piece 41 having a front-side 49 a and a backside 49 b opposite ofthe front-side 49 a. Disposed at the end of the electronics housing 47is a forward-looking lens 48 a for a corresponding forward-lookingcamera for capturing (e.g., recording, scanning, sensing, etc.) actualscenes of real world environments in order to generate augmented viewsof those actual scenes. In some alternative implementations, theforward-looking lens 48 a may be alternatively located at bridge 44 ofthe frame piece 41 or at some other location. Note that the left lens 45a and the right lens 45 b are optional and are not necessary forimplementing AR functionalities.

In FIG. 4A, the see-through display 46 is depicted as covering only aportion of the right lens 45 b and being depicted as being attached tothe end of the electronics housing 47. Thus, the see-through display 46may be used to display and overlay computer generated data and/or imagesonto portions of views of actual scenes of the real world environmentthat a user might see through right lens 45 b. Note again that since thesee-through display 46 covers only a portion of the right lens 45 b,only a portion of the view that a user may see through the right lens 45b may be augmented (e.g., modified). In some other alternativeimplementations, the see-through display 46 may alternatively cover theentire right lens 45 b so that the entire view of the user through theright lens 45 b may be augmented if needed. Although the electronicglasses 40 in FIGS. 4A and 4B is depicted as having only one see-throughdisplay 46 over the right lens 45 b, in alternative implementations, asecond see-through display may be disposed over the left lens 45 a. Theleft temple 42 a and the right temple 42 b are features that allow theAR system to be worn on a user's head.

FIG. 4B depicts a view of the backside 49 b of the frame piece 41 of theelectronic glasses 40 depicted in FIG. 4A. In FIG. 4B, the see-throughdisplay 46 can be seen through the clear right lens 45 b. Furtherillustrated in FIG. 4B is an inward-looking lens 48 b that can be seenthrough the clear right lens 45 b and which is for a correspondinginward-looking camera. As illustrated the inward-looking lens 48 b isdisposed on the electronics housing 47 near the see-through display 46.The inward-looking cameras may be employed in order to track themovements as well as the gaze and focus of the right eye of a user. Theplacement of the inward-looking lens 48 b is a design choice and may belocated elsewhere so long as it has a view to the right eye of a user.In alternative implementations, a second inward-looking lens for asecond inward-looking camera may be included in order to track andmonitor the movements as well as the gaze and focus of the left eye ofthe user. In the exemplary electronic glasses 40 illustrated in FIG. 4A,all of the major components are depicted as being located on theright-side of the electronic glasses 40. Alternatively, these components(e.g., electronic housing 47, see-through display 46, and so forth) maybe alternatively or additionally located on the left-side of theelectronic glasses 40.

The electronics housing 47 may house various electronics includingelectronics that are designed for, for example, processing data providedby the various cameras (e.g., forward-looking as well as backwardlooking cameras), and for generating augmented views of scenes from realworld environment that may be displayed through see-through display 46.The types of electronics that may be included with the electronicglasses 40 may include, for example, the types of electronics (e.g.,microprocessors, controllers, network interface card, memory, camera,battery, etc.) that are often found in mobile computing/communicationdevices such as the smartphone 10 or the tablet computer 20 describedearlier.

In some cases, the electronic housing 47 (and its contents including oneor more cameras) and the see-through display 46 may be a separate unitthat can be clipped onto a prescription or non-prescription eyeglasses.In such an embodiment, the electronic housing 47 may include one or morefeatures (e.g. one or more clips, magnets, straps, and so forth) thatallows the housing to be worn by a user by allowing the electronichousing 47 to be attached to a pair of eye-glasses or goggles.

There are many types of augmentations that may be provided through ARsystems including, for example, an augmentation that is in the form oftext that may be added to an augmented view of a scene from the realphysical environment, an augmentation that is in the form of 2 or3-dimensional item (which may or may not be an animated item that moves)that is added to an augmented view, and/or an augmentation that simplymodifies, emphasizes, deletes, or de-emphasizes an existing real worlditem (e.g., intensity of light, color of a car, removal of undesirableelements in the corresponding real field of view such as rubbish on theground, etc.) in the augmented view. In some cases, informationalaugmentations in the form of, for example, textual augmentations may beincluded in an augmented view of a scene from the real environment inorder to display information related to, for example, the scene from thereal environment or a visual item included in the scene from the realenvironment. For example, if an AR device is being used to view thefront of a retail store, then the AR device may be designed to includeinto the augmented view of the retail store sales and discountinformation related to the retail store.

As the development of AR technology moves forward and evolves, and asthe use of AR devices becomes more prevalent, the ability to shareaugmentations between AR device users (e.g., between AR devices) maybecome highly desirable and in some cases, necessary. That is, it iscontemplated that in the future there will be many situations wherebynot all AR devices and AR device users will have equal access toaugmentations that may be available for inclusions into augmented viewsof real world environments. In fact, it is contemplated thataugmentations displayed by AR devices may originally be provided from avariety of sources that may not be equally accessible by all AR users.

For example, in some cases an augmentation, such as an informationalaugmentation that provides information related to a particular visualitem (e.g., a store front, a merchandise item, an athletic event, itemsinside a restaurant or school, and so forth) that may be visible throughan AR device, may be provided by a third party source (e.g., a retailstore, a school, a sports arena, and so forth) that may be associatedwith the visual item (or its location) viewed through AR devices. Forinstance, if an AR user, who is using an AR device, enters a particularshopping mall, then an informational augmentation providing retailinformation related to that mall may be provided to the AR user throughhis or her AR device. Such informational augmentation may be downloadedto the AR device only when the AR device detects that it is in theproximate vicinity of the mall or when the AR device visually detectsone or more visual cues (e.g., visual markers or visual items)associated with the mall that prompts the AR device to acquire theappropriate information augmentation from one or more sources (e.g.,wireless routers or servers) affiliated with the mall.

In contrast, other AR device users who are not in the vicinity of themall or who do not have visual access to the one or more visual cuesassociated with the mall may not have access to such informationalaugmentations even though such augmentations may be useful to the otherAR device users (e.g., the other AR device users may be interested inwhat is on sale at the mall and may be viewing advertisements for themall). Such augmentations may be particularly useful when the other ARdevice user or users are in communication with the first AR user who isat the mall. That is, it may be helpful to facilitate communicationbetween multiple AR device users when all of the AR device users haveaccess to the same augmentations and/or when one or all AR device usershave an understanding as to what augmentations are the other AR deviceuser or users seeing through their AR device or devices. Thus, theability to be able to share augmentation information, as well as to beable to coordinate presentation of augmentations and information relatedto the display of the augmentations, in real-time in some cases, may begreatly beneficial.

In accordance with various embodiments, computationally implementedmethods, systems, circuitry, articles of manufacture, and computerprogram products are described herein that are designed to, among otherthings, acquire by a first augmented reality (AR) device augmentationdata that is associated with one or more first augmentations that wasremotely displayed by a second AR device; visually present by the firstAR device one or more second augmentations, the visual presenting by thefirst AR device of the one or more second augmentations being based, atleast in part, on the received augmentation data; and relay back to thesecond AR device usage data that indicates usage information related atleast to usage or non-usage by the first AR device of to the receivedaugmentation data.

In some implementations, the computationally implemented methods,systems, circuitry, articles of manufacture, and computer programproducts may actually be designed to, among other things, receiveaugmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations, theone or more first augmentations having been included in a firstaugmented view of a first actual scene that was remotely displayed at aremote augmented reality (AR) device, display one or more secondaugmentations in a second augmented view of a second actual scene, thedisplaying of the one or more second augmentations being in response, atleast in part, to the augmentation data, and transmit to the remote ARdevice usage data that indicates usage information related at least tousage or non-usage of the received augmentation data.

In various embodiments, the methods, systems, circuitry, articles ofmanufacture, and computer program products in accordance with variousembodiments may be implemented by the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B.Note that for purposes of the following, “*” represents a wildcard.Thus, references in the following to the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7Bmay be in reference to the AR device 50′ of FIG. 7A or to the AR device50″ of FIG. 7B. Note further that the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B mayhave a variety of form factors including, for example, any one of theform factors illustrated in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B.

In order to further facilitate understanding of the various operations,processes, and systems to be described herein, certain concepts andterms will now be introduced with references to FIGS. 5A and 5B, 6A, 6B,6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U. Inparticular, FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate two exemplary environments thatshow how a first AR device user 51 (hereinafter “first user 51” orsimply “user 51”) using a first AR device 50* may exchange variousaugmentation data and/or augmentation-related data with a second ARdevice user 52 (hereinafter “second user 52” or simply “user 52”) usinga second AR device 70 in accordance with various embodiments. Incontrast, FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q,6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U illustrates example actual views and augmented viewsof scenes from the real environment that may be displayed through thefirst AR device 50* or the second AR device 70 of FIGS. 5A and 5B inaccordance with various embodiments. Note that the first AR device 50*and the second AR device 70 have been depicted as having the shape ofglasses (as illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B) only for the sake ofconvenience. Thus, in alternative implementations, the first AR device50* and/or the second AR device 70 may have other form factors (e.g., asmartphone, a tablet computer, a goggle, a helmet, and so forth)

Referring particularly now to FIG. 5A which illustrates an exampleenvironment 500 in which a first user 51 (using a first augmentedreality (AR) device 50* or simply “AR device 50*”) acquires augmentationdata 55 from a second user 52 (who is using a second AR device 70 orsimply “AR device 70”) and relaying to the second AR device 70 usagedata 56 that provides information related to the usage or non-usage ofthe augmentation data 55 by the first AR device 50*. In particular, FIG.5A illustrates an example scenario in which the second user 52 isviewing a first visual item 62 a in the form of a painting (i.e., theMona Lisa) at a first location (e.g., a museum in New York). In theexample scenario, the second user 52 is depicted as viewing (see actualview 60 a of FIG. 6A, which is an exemplary actual or unmodified view ofthe first visual item 62 a as seen through the AR device 70) the firstvisual item 62 a using an AR device 70 and may see through the first ARdevice 70 an augmented view 60 b (see FIG. 6B) of the first visual item62 a. The augmented view 60 b that the second user 52 may see throughthe AR device 70 may include one or more first augmentations including afirst augmentation 64 a (see FIG. 6B) that is informational and thatprovides information related to the first visual item 62 a. Note that inthe example illustrated in FIG. 6B, the first augmentation 64 a to beincluded in augmented view 60 b of the actual scene (e.g., actual view60 a of FIG. 6A) is “affiliated with” the first visual item 62 a sincethe first augmentation 64 a is associated with and depends on, for itsinclusion in the augmented view 60 b, the presence of the first visualitem 62 a in the corresponding actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 a ofFIG. 6A).

The first augmented reality (AR) device 50* (or simply “AR device 50*”),which may include a wireless transceiver as part of, for example, thenetwork interface 112 illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B, may acquireaugmentation data 55 from the second AR device 70 of the second user 52.The first AR device 50* may be used by the first user 51 in order toview an augmented view of an art book 66 that contains a second visualitem 62 c (e.g., an image of the Mona Lisa in the art book 66)—note thatin this example, the second visual item 62 c viewed through the first ARdevice 50* is essentially the same as the first visual item 62 a viewedthrough the second AR device 70. In the example environment 500illustrated in FIG. 5A, the second user 52 may be viewing the firstvisual item 62 a at a first location such as a museum, while the firstuser 50* may be viewing the second visual item 62 c (e.g., an image ofthe Mona Lisa in an art book 66) at a second location (e.g., user'shome). In order to coordinate the augmentations being presented by boththe AR device 70 and the AR device 50*, augmentation data 55 may berelayed (e.g., transmitted or sent) to the first AR device 50 from thesecond AR device 70 via one or more wireless and/or wired networks 58(e.g., a cellular telephone or data network, a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN), a wireless wide area network or WAN, a public switchedtelephone network (PTSN), a personal area network (PAN), and/or othertypes of networks). The augmentation data 55 that may be acquired by thefirst AR device 50* may include, for example, content information,formatting information including, for example, one or more visibilityrules (e.g., rules that define when or how an augmentation may bepresented through an augmented view), and/or other types of informationassociated with the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation64 a of FIG. 6B) presented through the AR device 70. More detailsregarding the augmentation data 55 will be described in greater detailin the processes and operations to be described herein.

Based, at least in part, on the augmentation data 55 acquired from thesecond AR device 70, the first AR device 50* may or may not visuallypresent, for example, a second augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) thatincludes one or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e—seeFIG. 6H) as the first user 51 views the second visual item 62 c (e.g.,the image of the Mona Lisa in art book 66) through the first AR device50*. Note that the formatting and the presentation of the one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e—see FIG. 6H) by the firstAR device 50* may, in addition to being based on the augmentation data55 (including one or more visibility rules) provided by the second ARdevice 70, be based on its own visibility rules (e.g., the visibilityrules of the first AR device 50*) or visibility rules provided by othersources.

In order to further coordinate (e.g., synchronize or harmonize) theaugmented and non-augmented views provided through the first AR device50* with the augmented and non-augmented views provided through thesecond AR device 70, the first AR device 50* may relay (e.g., transmit)to the second AR device 70 usage data 56, which may include a variety ofdata including, for example, data that may indicate that theaugmentation data 55 has been successfully received by the first ARdevice 50*, data that indicate that one or more second augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) was displayed by the first ARdevice 50*, and/or other types of data related to the presentationand/or usage of augmentations or augmentation data. A more detaileddiscussion related to the usage data 56 will be provided with respect tothe processes and operations to be described herein.

Turning now to FIG. 5B, which illustrates another exemplary environment502 in which the first AR device 50* is sharing augmentation data 55 andusage data 56 with the second AR device 70 similar to the exemplaryenvironment 500 of FIG. 5A. However, unlike in the exemplary environment500 illustrated in FIG. 5A, in the exemplary environment 502 illustratedin FIG. 5B, the first user 51 and the second user 52 are spatially veryclose to each other and are using their respective AR devices (e.g., ARdevice 50* and AR device 70) to view the same visual item 62 a. That is,there are many circumstances in which multiple AR devices may havediffering access to various augmentations even though the AR devices mayare being used in the same location for similar purposes (e.g., forexample one AR device 70 may have stored augmentation data in its memory114 that may not be stored in the memory of another AR device 50*). Insuch circumstances, it may still be desirable to be able to shareaugmentation data 55 and usage data 56 between the different AR devices(e.g., the AR device 50* and the AR device 70).

Note that in the following, the words “remote” or “remotely” will berepeatedly used with respect to various operations to be describedherein. In particular, the words “remote” or “remotely” will generallybe used herein with respect to various operations performed by, forexample, a second AR device 70 and in contrast to a “local” or “locally”executed operations as performed by, for example, a first AR device 50*.Thus, the words “remote” or “remotely” does not indicate or suggest anyrequired spatial distance for performing an operation but instead ismerely indicating that the corresponding “remote” operation is beingperformed at, for example, a second AR device 70 as opposed to beingperformed “locally” at, for example, a first AR device 50*. Although notillustrated in FIG. 5B, in some implementations, the first AR device 50*and the second AR device 70 may be communicate with each other via oneor more wireless and/or wired networks 58 as was illustrated in FIG. 5A.Alternatively, the AR device 50* and the AR device 70 may be in directcommunication with each other.

Turning now to FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P,6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U that illustrate exemplary actual views andaugmented views of various scenes from the real environment that may beprovided by the first AR device 50* and the second AR device 70illustrated in FIG. 5. The exemplary actual views and the exemplaryaugmented views illustrated in these figures are provided in order tofacilitate understanding of various concepts that will be described inconnection with the various operations and processes to be discussedherein. In particular, FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, and 6F illustrateexample actual views and augmented views that may be presented by thesecond AR device 70 of FIGS. 5A and 5B. In contrast, FIGS. 6G, 6H, 6J,6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U illustrate example actual viewsand augmented views that may be presented by the first AR device 50* ofFIGS. 5A and 5B (e.g., the AR device 50′ of FIG. 7A or the AR device 50″of FIG. 7B). Note that the shapes (e.g., rectangular shapes) of theactual and augmented views that are illustrated in 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E,6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U are not meant tobe accurate depictions of the shapes of the actual and augmented viewsthat may be obtained through, for example, the AR device 50* or the ARdevice 70 of FIGS. 5A and 5B. Instead, the actual and augmented viewsillustrated in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P,6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U were made to have simple rectangular shapes forease illustration and explanation. Note that for ease of illustrationand explanation, the following discussions of the various actual andaugmented views illustrated in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J,6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U will be provided by referencingthe exemplary environment 500 illustrated in FIG. 5A. However, those ofordinary skill in the art will recognize that the various concepts to beintroduced in the following will also be applicable to the exemplaryenvironment 502 illustrated in FIG. 5B.

Referring particularly now to FIG. 6A, which illustrates an exemplaryactual view 60 a of a scene from the real environment as captured by,for example, the second AR device 70 of FIG. 5A. The actual view 60 a,as captured by the second AR device 70 includes a first visual item 62 a(or simply “visual item 62 a”). In various embodiments, the AR device 70may obtain an augmentation 64 a (e.g., data for generating theaugmentation 64 a) from one or more third party sources (e.g., wirelessnetwork servers) associated with the museum displaying the visual item62 a, (e.g., the Mona Lisa painting). Based on the obtained augmentation64 a, the AR device 70 may present the first augmented view 60 b (whichincludes augmentation 64 a) as illustrated in FIG. 6B.

In some cases, the acquisition of the augmentation 64 a by the AR device70 from the one or more third party sources may have been prompted bythe detection of one or more visual cues (e.g., detection of the visualitem 62 a or other visual items such as a marker placed in the vicinityof the visual item 62 a). In alternative embodiments, the acquisition ofthe augmentation 64 a by the AR device 70 may have been prompted by thelocation that is associated with the visual item 62 a or the locationassociated with the actual scene associated with the visual item 62 a.In still other embodiments, the acquisition of the augmentation 64 a bythe AR device 70 may have been prompted by the reception of wirelesssignals (e.g., as generated by a wireless router or server located atthe museum) that directly or indirectly indicates the availability ofthe augmentation 64 a for downloading. In still other cases,augmentation 64 a may have been stored in the memory of the AR device 70and may have been factory installed.

Note that in various embodiments the augmentation 64 a that is includedin the augmented view 60 b that may be presented by the AR device 70 maybe placed at a specific predefined location within the augmented view 60b based on one or more visibility rules. For example, the AR device 70may comply with one or more visibility rules that requires theaugmentation 64 a to be placed in the proximate vicinity (e.g.,adjacent) to the visual item 62 a in the augmented view 60 b. In FIG.6B, the example augmentation 64 a to be included in the augmented view60 b is an informational augmentation that includes information (e.g.,name of painting, name of artist, and background summary) related to thevisual item 62 a. Note that included with the augmentations 64 a is atab 65 (e.g., a functional augmentation) for scrolling through thebackground summary. Such a tab 65 may be selected or activated using avariety of techniques (e.g., using eye focus or gaze trackingapplication, a voice command system, and so forth).

Turning now to FIG. 6C, which illustrates another exemplary actual view60 c that the user 52 may see through the AR device 70 (e.g., that theuser 52 may see if the AR device 70 is setup to display unmodifiedviews—no augmentations) if the user 52 takes several steps back awayfrom the visual item 62 a. As a result of the user 52 stepping furtheraway from the visual item 62 a (e.g., the Mona Lisa painting), anothervisual item 62 b (e.g., a Picasso painting) appears in the actual view60 c (e.g., field of view) of the AR device 70.

Referring now to FIG. 6D, which is an exemplary augmented view 60 d ofactual view 60 c (e.g., actual scene from the real environment)illustrated in FIG. 6C. The augmented view 60 d includes an augmentation64 b that was inserted and formatted in the augmented view 60 d based,for example, on one or more visibility rules (e.g., directives orcommands as to how and when one or more augmentations are to bepresented) that the AR device 70 is executing. The augmentation 64 b isan informational augmentation that provides background informationrelated to the visual item 62 a and that includes a tab 65 (e.g., afunctional augmentation) for retrieving and displaying more informationupon user request (e.g., the user 52 can select or activate tab 65 byeye focus, by voice command, and/or by other input means). The placementof the augmentation 64 b adjacent to the visual item 62 a in theaugmented view 60 b may be based on the one or more visibility rulesthat is being executed by the AR device 70 and that is requiring theaugmentation 64 b to be placed adjacent to the visual item 62 a in theaugmented view 60.

Note that since augmentation 64 b overlays visual item 62 b, the one ormore visibility rules that the AR device 70 executes may require theaugmentation 64 b to be semi-transparent in order to minimize visualobstruction of the visual item 62 b. That is, the one or more visibilityrules that the AR device 70 may be complying with may designate one ormore visual items (e.g., visual item 62 b) as being one or more priorityvisual items that have visual priority over augmentations. That is, theone or more visibility rules being executed by the AR device 70 mayrequire an augmentation 64 b to be at least semi-transparent whenever,for example, the insertion of the augmentation 64 into an augmented view60 d (see FIG. 6D) will cause a view of one or more priority visualitems (e.g. visual item 62 b) to be fully or partially obstructed. Notethat augmentation 64 b may be “affiliated” with visual item 62 a sinceaugmentation 64 b may depend on, for its insertion or placement in theaugmented view 60 d, the presence of the visual item 62 a in the actualview 60 c.

FIG. 6E illustrates another type of augmentation 64 c that may bedisplayed (e.g., visually presented) by the AR device 70. Theaugmentation 64 c is a functional augmentation that provides minimalcontent information and that may be selected or activated by a user 52(e.g., voice command or eye stare or gaze) in order to retrieve anddisplay another more informational augmentation (e.g. augmentation 64 bof FIG. 6D). The inclusion of such an augmentation 64 c in the augmentedview 60 e rather than augmentation 64 b may be based on the one or morevisibility rules being executed by the AR device 70. In some cases theone or more visibility rules may require, as a default, that such anaugmentation 64 c be included into the augmented view 60 e whenever theaffiliated visual item 62 a is detected as being present in the actualview 60 e (e.g., actual scene). Alternatively, the one or morevisibility rules may require that such an augmentation 64 c may only beinserted into the augmented view 60 e only when a priority visual item62 b would be visually obstructed in the augmented view 60 e if a moreinformational augmentation (e.g., augmentation 64 a) is inserted intothe augmented view 60 e.

Referring now to FIG. 6F, which illustrates another exemplary augmentedview 60 f with another type of augmentation 64 d. The augmentation 64 dmay be shaped and may be placed in a particular location of theaugmented view 60 f in order to prevent the view of the visual item 62 bfrom being visually obstructed. That is, the one or more visibilityrules that the AR device 70 may be executing may require that ratherthan making an augmentation 64 d semi-transparent (as was the case inFIG. 6D) or make the augmentation 64 d have a small footprint (as wasthe case in FIG. 6E), the AR device 70 may configure and place theaugmentation 64 d in the augmented view 60 f in such a way as to notobstruct the view of the visual item 62 b (e.g., priority visual item)in the augmented view 60 f.

As described previously, the first AR device 50* of FIGS. 5A and 5B (aswell as FIGS. 7A and 7B) may be designed to acquire (e.g., receive)augmentation data 55 from the second AR device 70 via, in some cases,one or more wireless and/or wired networks 58. The augmentation data 55that may be relayed to the first AR device 50* may include informationrelated to the generation and display of one or more augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64 b, 64 c, and/or 64 d) that were presentedby the first AR device 50* including, for example, content information,formatting information including one or more visibility rules, and/orother information related to the generation and/or presentation of oneor more augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64 b, 64 c, and/or 64 d)by the first AR device 70. As briefly described above, the first user 51of FIG. 5A is located far away from the second user 52 and is viewing anart book 66 that includes another visual item 62 d (e.g., an image ofthe Mona Lisa). Note that although FIG. 5A appears to illustrate that hefirst user 51 and the second user 52 are separated by great distances,there is no requirement that the first user 51 and the second 52 be someminimal distance away from each other. Thus, the phrase “remote” asopposed to the phrase “local,” as used herein, merely indicate thatcertain operations may be performed “locally” by a first AR device(e.g., AR device 50*) while other operations are performed “remotely” ata second AR device (e.g., AR device 70) as illustrated in FIG. 5B.

FIG. 6G illustrates an exemplary actual view 60 g (e.g., unmodified ornon-augmented view) of the open art book 66 of FIG. 5A as viewed throughthe AR device 50*. The actual view 60 g includes art book 66 with itspages open, a visual item 62 c (e.g., an image of the Mona Lisa thatmirrors the visual item 62 a (e.g., the Mona Lisa painting) of FIGS. 6A,6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, and 6F), and another visual item 62 d (e.g., an image ofa Picasso) that mirrors the visual item 62 b of FIGS. 6C, 6D, 6E, and6F. Based, at least in part, on the received augmentation data 55received from the second AR device 70 the first AR device 50* maydisplay or present an augmented view 60 h, as illustrated in FIG. 6H.The augmented view 60 h that may be presented by the AR device 50*includes the open art book 66 and the visual item 62 c (e.g., image ofthe Mona Lisa) that was part of the actual view 60 g of FIG. 6G. Inaddition to the art book 66 and the visual item 62 c, an augmentation 64e has been included into the augmented view 60 h.

The content, formatting, and presentation of the augmentation 64 e thatis included into the augmented view 60 h may be based, at least in part,on the augmentation data 55 received by the second AR device 50. Theaugmentation 64 e, as illustrated, is a modified version (e.g., ashorten version with less information—no name for the painting andshortened shorter summary section) of the augmentation 64 a (see FIG.6B) presented by the first AR device 50*. The augmentation 64 e includesa functional tag 65 for retrieving additional content information. Theaugmentation 64 e, and similar to the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B, maybe affiliated with a visual item (e.g., visual item 62 c). That is,augmentation 64 e may depend on, for its insertion into the augmentedview 60 h, presence of a visual item 62 c in the corresponding actualview 60 q (see FIG. 6G).

In various embodiments, the specific formatting and content of theaugmentation 64 e to be presented by the second AR device 50*, inaddition to being dependent on the received augmentation data 55, may insome cases be dependent on one or more visibility rules of the second ARdevice 50*. As will be further described and illustrated herein, manyother types of augmentations (see, for example augmentations 64 f, 64 g,64 h, 64 i, 64 k, 64 m, 64 n, 64 p, and 64 q of FIGS. 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N,6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U) may be presented by the first AR device 50*based on the augmentation data 55 and the environmental context (e.g.,user activities such as whether the user is at work, driving anautomobile, shopping, visiting a museum, and so forth) in which theaugmentations are being presented, and in some cases, based on its ownvisibility rules (e.g., rules that govern when and how an augmentationshould be presented). Note that, and as will be described in greaterdetail herein, the environmental context that an augmentation (e.g.,augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, 64 k, 64 m, 64 n, 64 p, or 64q of FIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U) may be presentedby the first AR device 50* may be inferred based on a variety of sensorinput and/or user input data (e.g., data provided by optical sensorssuch as cameras for detecting one or more visible identifiable objects,data obtained from audio sensors for identifying particular sounds, dataobtained through social networking channels that may indicate useractivities, data from GPS devices, and so forth).

FIG. 6J illustrates another exemplary augmented view 60 j includinganother augmentation 64 f that may be presented by the AR device 50* ofFIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B). The augmentation 64 f depictedin FIG. 6J is an augmentation that fully replicates the informationprovided by augmentation 64 a (see FIG. 6B) that was remotely displayedby the second AR device 70.

FIG. 6K illustrates yet another exemplary augmented view 60 k thatincludes an augmentation 64 g that may be presented by the AR device50*. The augmentation 64 j, as illustrated in FIG. 6K, issemi-transparent in order not to completely obfuscate or hide visualobject 62 d (e.g., image of the Picasso painting). The “transparentness”of augmentation 64 j may be based on the one or more visibility rulesprovided by the augmentation data 55 that was received by the AR device50*. Alternatively, the transparentness of augmentation 64 j may bebased on one or more visibility rules of the AR device 50* or based onvisibility rules from a combination of different sources (e.g., from theAR device 50* and from the AR device 70).

FIG. 6M illustrates still another exemplary augmented view 60 m thatincludes an augmentation 64 h that may be presented by the AR device50*. In this example, the augmentation 64 h is a functional augmentationthat allows a user 51 to select or activate the functional augmentation64 h in order to retrieve and display a more informational augmentation.Augmentation 64 h is similar to the functional augmentation 64 c (seeFIG. 6E) that may be displayed by the first AR device 70 and thatprovides very little content information prior to being activated orelected by the user 51. Note that the use of an augmentation 64 h with asmall footprint in the augmented view 60 m means that the insertedaugmentation 64 h does not obfuscate the view of visual item 62 d, whichmay, in fact, be identified as being a priority visual item by the oneor more visibility rules that are executed by the AR device 50*.

Turning now to FIG. 6N, which illustrates an exemplary augmented view 60n that includes augmentation 64 i and that may be presented by the ARdevice 50*. In this case, augmentation 64 i is shaped and placed in theaugmented view 60 n in a particular way as to not obstruct the view ofvisual item 62 d. Note that augmentation 64 i is similar to theaugmentation 64 d of FIG. 6F that may be presented by the second ARdevice 70. The specific formatting and the specific placement of theaugmentation 64 i in the augmented view 60 n may be based on a number offactors including on one or more visibility rules provided by receivedaugmentation data 55, one or more visibility rules locally provided bythe AR device 50*, and/or environmental context in which the augmentedview 60 n will be displayed or presented.

FIG. 6P illustrates an exemplary actual view 60 p of the open art book66 of FIGS. 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, and 6N that has now been closed and thatmay displayed by the AR device 50*. FIG. 6Q, in contrast, illustrates anexemplary augmented view 60 q of the actual view 60 p that may bevisually presented by the AR device 50*. The augmented view 60 qincludes a functional augmentation 64 k that is shaped like a book orpage marker and that may be activated or selected by a user 51 in orderto retrieve and display another augmentation (e.g., augmentation 64 f ofFIG. 6J). That is, the AR device 50* based on one or more visibilityrules (which may be its own visibility rules and/or visibility rulesobtained from other sources such as from AR device 70) may visuallyrecognize the outer cover the art book 66, and based on its recognitionof the art book 66 and based on one or more visibility rules, mayinclude into the augmented view 60 q, the functional augmentation 64 k.Since the art book 66 includes the image of the Mona Lisa (visual item62 c), the functional augmentation 64 k may be made to be activated orselected in order to retrieve an informational augmentation (e.g.,augmentation 64 f of FIG. 6J) related to the visual item 62 c includedin the art book 66.

FIG. 6R illustrates another exemplary augmented view 60 r that may bevisually presented by the AR device 50*. Included in this augmented view60 r is a shortened augmentation 64 e (which, for example, has reducedcontent information relative to what was shown by AR device 70 and whichwas previously illustrated in FIG. 6H) and a functional augmentation 64m for indicating and retrieving the missing information. That is, thefunctional augmentation 64 m may be selected or activated by, forexample, a user 51. In response to being selected or activated, the ARdevice 50* may provide additional content information related to, forexample, visual item 62 c (see FIG. 6G).

FIG. 6S illustrates an augmented view 60 s that includes an augmentation64 n and that may be visually presented by the AR device 50*. Inparticular, augmentation 64 n is a variation of the augmentation 64 fillustrated in FIG. 6J except that augmentation 64 n includes afunctional tab 65 a that has been disabled. The disability of thefunctional tab 65 a may be indicated by making the functional tab 65 aopaque or faded.

Turning now to FIG. 6T, which illustrates another exemplary augmentedview 60 t that may be visually presented by AR device 50*. Included inthe augmented view 60 t is augmentation 64 p that indicate the degree ofcorrespondence between the augmentation 64 e presented by the AR device50* and the corresponding augmentation (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG.6B) presented by the remote AR device 70. The degree of correspondencemay be determined by the AR device 50* based, at least in part, on theaugmentation data 55 provided by the AR device 70 and the actualaugmentation 64 e that was displayed by the AR device 50*.

Referring now to FIG. 6U, which illustrates yet another exemplaryaugmented view 60 u that may be visually presented by AR device 50*.Included in the augmented view 60 u is augmentation 64 q that indicatethe degree of difference between the augmentation 64 e presented by theAR device 50* and the corresponding augmentation (e.g., augmentation 64a of FIG. 6B) presented by the remote AR device 70. The degree ofdifference may be determined by the AR device 50* based, at least inpart, on the augmentation data 55 provided by the AR device 70 and theactual augmentation 64 e that was displayed by the AR device 50*. Thevarious exemplary actual and augmented views illustrated in FIGS. 6A,6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6Uas well as the example environments illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B willbe discussed in greater detail herein with respect to the processes andoperations to be described below.

Referring now to FIGS. 7A and 7B, FIGS. 7A and 7B are two block diagramsrepresenting two different implementations of an augmented reality (AR)device 50* that can execute the operations and processes to be describedherein. In particular, and as will be further described herein, FIG. 7Aillustrates an AR device 50′ that is the “hardwired” or “hard”implementation of an AR device 50* that can implement the operations andprocesses to be described herein. The AR device 50′ includes certainlogic modules including an augmentation data acquiring module 102′, anaugmentation presenting module 104′, a non-augmented view presentingmodule 105′, and a usage data relaying module 106′ that are implementedusing purely hardware or circuitry components (e.g., applicationspecific integrated circuit (or ASIC). In contrast, FIG. 7B illustratesan AR device 50″ that is the “soft” implementation of the AR device 50of FIG. 7A in which certain logic modules including an augmentation dataacquiring module 102″, an augmentation presenting module 104″, anon-augmented view presenting module 105″, and a usage data relayingmodule 106″ are implemented using electronic circuitry (e.g., one ormore processors including one or more microprocessors, controllers,etc.) executing one or more programming instructions (e.g., software).

The embodiments of the AR device 50* illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B aretwo extreme implementations of the AR device 50* in which all of thelogic modules (e.g., the augmentation data acquiring module 102′, theaugmentation presenting module 104′, the non-augmented view presentingmodule 105′, and the usage data relaying module 106′) are implementedusing purely hardware solutions (e.g., circuitry such as ASIC) asillustrated in FIG. 7A or in which all of the logic modules (e.g., theaugmentation data acquiring module 102″, the augmentation presentingmodule 104″, the non-augmented view presenting module 105″, and theusage data relaying module 106″) are implemented using softwaresolutions (e.g., programmable instructions being executed by hardwaresuch as one or more processors) as illustrated in FIG. 7B. Since, thereare many ways of combining hardware, software, and/or firmware in orderto implement the various logic modules (e.g., the augmentation dataacquiring module 102*, the augmentation presenting module 104*, thenon-augmented view presenting module 105*, and the usage data relayingmodule 106*), only the two extreme implementations (e.g., the purelyhardware solution as illustrated in FIG. 7A and the software solution ofFIG. 7B) are illustrated here. It should be noted here that with respectto the “soft” implementation illustrated in FIG. 7B, hardware in theform of circuitry such as one or more processors 116 are still needed inorder to execute the software. Further details related to the twoimplementations of AR device 50* illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B will beprovided in greater detail below.

In some instances, one or more components may be referred to herein as“configured to,” “configured by,” “configurable to,” “operable/operativeto,” “adapted/adaptable,” “able to,” “conformable/conformed to,”“designed to,” etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that suchterms (e.g., “configured to”) generally encompass active-statecomponents and/or inactive-state components and/or standby-statecomponents, unless context requires otherwise.

Referring particularly now to FIG. 7A, which illustrates a block diagramof an AR device 50′ that includes an augmentation data acquiring module102′, an augmentation presenting module 104′, a non-augmented viewpresenting module 105′ (e.g., for displaying or presenting annon-augmented or unmodified views of scenes from the real environment),usage data relaying module 106′, one or more processors 116 (e.g., oneor more microprocessors), a memory 114 that may store one or moreapplications 160 (e.g., an operating system (OS) 162, one or more facialrecognition applications 163, one or more visual object recognitionapplications 164 (e.g., for visually recognizing one or more items thatare visible in a scene from the real physical environment), one or morevoice recognition applications 165, one or more sound recognitionapplications 166 (e.g., an application for recognizing/identifyingsounds other than voice such as the sound of a train passing or wavescrashing along a shoreline), one or more social networking applications167 such as Twitter or Facebook, one or more personal informationmanager (PIM) applications 168 such as Microsoft Outlook, and so forth),one or more augmentations 170, and/or one or more visibility rules 171,a user interface 110 (e.g., a display, a mouse, a microphone, etc.), anetwork interface 112 (e.g., a network interface card or “NIC”), and/orone or more sensors 120. Although not depicted, the memory 114 may alsoinclude communication applications such as an email application and/oran instant messaging (IM) application.

In various embodiments, the augmentation data acquiring module 102′ ofFIG. 7A is a logic module that may be designed to, among other things,acquire augmentation data associated with one or more firstaugmentations that was remotely displayed at a remote augmented reality(AR) device, the one or more augmentations having been displayed in afirst augmented view of a first actual scene. In contrast, theaugmentation presenting module 104′ of FIG. 7A is a logic module thatmay be configured to present locally (e.g., present visually or byelectronic transmission) one or more second augmentations in response,at least in part, to the received augmentation data. Finally, the usagerelaying module 106′ of FIG. 7A may be designed to relay back to theremote AR device usage data that indicates usage information related atleast to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data.

Turning now to FIG. 7B, which illustrates a block diagram of another ARdevice 50″ that can implement the operations and processes to bedescribed herein. As indicated earlier, the AR device 50″ in FIG. 7B ismerely the “soft” version of the AR device 50′ of FIG. 7A because thevarious logic modules (e.g., the augmentation data acquiring module102″, the augmentation presenting module 104″, the non-augmented viewpresenting module 105″, and the usage data relaying module 106″ areimplemented using software and one or more processors 116 (e.g., one ormore microprocessors or controllers) executing the software (e.g.,computer readable instructions 152) rather than being implemented usingpurely hardware (e.g., ASIC) as was the case in the AR device 50′ ofFIG. 7A. Thus, the augmentation data acquiring module 102″, theaugmentation presenting module 104″, the non-augmented view presentingmodule 105″, and the usage data relaying module 106″ of FIG. 7B may bedesigned to execute the same functions as the augmentation dataacquiring module 102′, the augmentation presenting module 104′, thenon-augmented view presenting module 105′, and the usage data relayingmodule 106′ of FIG. 7A. The AR device 50″, as illustrated in FIG. 7B,has other components (e.g., user interface 110, network interface 112,and so forth) that are the same or similar to the other componentsincluded in the AR device 50′ of FIG. 7A. Note that in the embodiment ofthe AR device 50* illustrated in FIG. 7B, the augmentation dataacquiring module 102″, the augmentation presenting module 104″, thenon-augmented view presenting module 105″, and the usage data relayingmodule 106″ may be implemented by the one or more processors 116 (orother types of circuitry such as field programmable gate arrays orFPGAs) executing one or more computer readable instructions 152 storedin memory 114.

In various embodiments, the memory 114 of the AR device 50′ of FIG. 7Aand the AR device 50″ of FIG. 7B may comprise of one or more of massstorage device, read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory(PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cache memorysuch as random access memory (RAM), flash memory, synchronous randomaccess memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or othertypes of memory devices.

Turning now to FIG. 8A illustrating a particular implementation of theaugmentation data acquiring module 102* (e.g., the augmentation dataacquiring module 102′ or the augmentation data acquiring module 102″) ofFIGS. 7A and 7B. As illustrated, the augmentation data acquiring module102* may include one or more sub-logic modules in various alternativeimplementations. For example, in various embodiments, the augmentationdata acquiring module 102* may include an augmentation contentinformation acquiring module 802, a visual item information acquiringmodule 804, an augmentation format information acquiring module 806(which may further include a visibility rule acquiring module 808),and/or a request transmitting module 810. Specific details related tothe augmentation data acquiring module 102* as well as theabove-described sub-modules of the augmentation data acquiring module102* will be provided below with respect to the operations and processesto be described herein.

FIG. 8B illustrates a particular implementation of the augmentationpresenting module 104* (e.g., the augmentation presenting module 104′ orthe augmentation presenting module 104″) of FIG. 7A or 7B. Asillustrated, the augmentation presenting module 104* may include one ormore sub-logic modules in various alternative embodiments. For example,in various embodiments, the augmentation presenting module 104* mayinclude a modified augmentation presenting module 812, an affiliatedaugmentation presenting module 814 (which may further include a visualitem sensing module 816), a location specific augmentation presentingmodule 818, a semi-transparent augmentation presenting module 820 (whichmay further include a conditionally transparent augmentation presentingmodule 822), a functional augmentation presenting module 824, anaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826,and/or a difference indicator presenting module 828 (which may furtherinclude a modification indicator presenting module 830, a degree ofcorrespondence presenting module 832, and/or a degree of differencepresenting module 834). Specific details related to the augmentationpresenting module 104* as well as the above-described sub-modules of theaugmentation presenting module 104* will be provided below with respectto the operations and processes to be described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 8C illustrating a particular implementation of theusage data relaying module 106* (e.g., the usage data relaying module106′ or the usage data relaying module 106″) of FIG. 7A or 7B. Asillustrated, the usage data relaying module 106* may include one or moresub-logic modules in various alternative embodiments. For example, invarious embodiments, the usage data relaying module 106* may include anetwork relaying module 836, an augmentation relaying module 838, and/ora difference indicating data relaying module 840 (which may furtherinclude a modification indicating data relaying module 842, a degree ofcorrespondence indicating data relaying module 844, a degree ofdifference indicating data relaying module 846, and/or an augmentationchange indicating data relaying module 848). Specific details related tothe usage data relaying module 106* as well as the above-describedsub-modules of the usage data relaying module 106* will be providedbelow with respect to the operations and processes to be describedherein.

FIG. 8D illustrates the various types of user interface devices that maybe part of the user interface 110 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B.In various embodiments, the user interface 110 may include one or moredisplay monitors 852 (e.g., a touchscreen, a liquid crystal display(LCD) monitor, a see-through display, and/or other types of displays ordisplay monitors), one or more visual capturing devices 854 (e.g., oneor more video or web cameras, digital cameras, and/or other types ofcameras), one or more audio speakers 856, one or more audio inputdevices 858 (e.g., one or more microphones), and/or one or morekeyboard/keypads 860. Although not depicted, other types of userinterfaces may be included with the user interface 110 in variousalternative embodiments including, for example, a mouse or other typesof user input/output devices.

FIG. 8E illustrates at least some of the various types of sensors 120that may be included with the AR device 50* (e.g. the AR device 50′ ofFIG. 7A or the AR device 50″ of FIG. 7B). As illustrated, the one ormore sensors 120 that may be included with the AR device 50* may includeone or more cameras 870 (note that the one or more cameras 870 may bethe same as the one or more visual capturing devices 854 described abovewith respect to the user interface 110), one or more audio sensors 872(see also audio input device[s] 858 described above), one or morelocation sensors 874 such as one or more global positioning systems(GPSs) 875, one or more orientation/movement sensors 876 (which maycomprise one or more accelerometers 877, one or more gyroscopes 878, oneor more inertia sensors 879, one or more pedometers 880), and/or one ormore user physiological sensors 882 (e.g., one or more blood pressuresensors 883, one or more pulse/heart rate sensors 884, one or more bloodsugar sensors 885). Note that with respect to the one or more locationsensors 874, the one or more orientation/movement sensors 876, and/orone or more user physiological sensors 882, these sensor devices mayinclude other types of sensors not depicted in FIG. 8C. For example theone or more location sensors 874 in some alternative implementations mayinclude a location sensor that employs triangulation techniques andsignals from cellular towers to determine location while the one or moreuser physiological sensors 882 may include in some alternativeembodiments one or more galvanic skin sensors and/or other types ofsensors.

A more detailed discussion related to the AR device 50* (e.g., the ARdevice 50′ of FIG. 7A or the AR device 50″ of FIG. 7B) discussed abovewill now be provided with respect to the example processes andoperations to be described herein. FIG. 9 illustrates an operationalflow 900 representing example operations for sharing of data related toone or more augmentations that may be presented by, for example, atleast one of two augmented reality (AR) devices that are sharing suchdata. The example processes may involve acquiring by a first AR device50* augmentation data 55 related to one or more first augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) that were presented remotely by asecond AR device 70, presenting by the first AR device 50* one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) in response,at least in part, to the acquired augmentation data 55; and relaying bythe first AR device 50* to the second AR device 70 usage data 56 thatrelates at least to the usage or non-usage of the augmentation data 56by the first AR device 50*.

In FIG. 9 and in the following figures that include various examples ofoperational flows, discussions and explanations will be provided withrespect to the AR device 50* described above and as illustrated in FIGS.1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, and 8E, and/orwith respect to other examples (e.g., the example scenarios and exampleactual and augmented views as illustrated in FIGS. 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 6C,6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, and 6U) andcontexts. However, it should be understood that the operational flowsmay be executed in a number of other environments and contexts, and/orin modified versions of FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B,6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, 6P, 6Q, 6R, 6S, 6T, 6U,7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, and 8E. Also, although the various operationalflows are presented in the sequence(s) illustrated, it should beunderstood that the various operations may be performed in other ordersother than those which are illustrated, or may be performedconcurrently.

Further, in FIG. 9 and in the figures to follow thereafter, variousoperations may be depicted in a box-within-a-box manner. Such depictionsmay indicate that an operation in an internal box may comprise anoptional example embodiment of the operational step illustrated in oneor more external boxes. However, it should be understood that internalbox operations may be viewed as independent operations separate from anyassociated external boxes and may be performed in any sequence withrespect to all other illustrated operations, or may be performedconcurrently. Still further, these operations illustrated in FIG. 9 aswell as the other operations to be described herein are performed by atleast one of a machine, an article of manufacture, or a composition ofmatter unless indicated otherwise.

For ease of understanding, the flowcharts are organized such that theinitial flowcharts present implementations via an example implementationand thereafter the following flowcharts present alternateimplementations and/or expansions of the initial flowchart(s) as eithersub-component operations or additional component operations building onone or more earlier-presented flowcharts. Those having skill in the artwill appreciate that the style of presentation utilized herein (e.g.,beginning with a presentation of a flowchart(s) presenting an exampleimplementation and thereafter providing additions to and/or furtherdetails in subsequent flowcharts) generally allows for a rapid and easyunderstanding of the various process implementations. In addition, thoseskilled in the art will further appreciate that the style ofpresentation used herein also lends itself well to modular and/orobject-oriented program design paradigms.

More particularly, in FIG. 9 and in the figures to follow thereafter,various operations may be depicted in a box-within-a-box manner. Suchdepictions may indicate that an operation in an internal box maycomprise an optional example embodiment of the operational stepillustrated in one or more external boxes. However, it should beunderstood that internal box operations may be viewed as independentoperations separate from any associated external boxes and may beperformed in any sequence with respect to all other illustratedoperations, or may be performed concurrently. Still further, theseoperations illustrated FIG. 9 as well as the other operations to bedescribed herein may be performed by at least one of a machine, anarticle of manufacture, or a composition of matter. In variousembodiments, the operational flow 900 of FIG. 9 to be described belowmay be implemented by the AR device 50* of FIG. 5A or 5B (e.g., the ARdevice 50′ of FIG. 7A or the AR device 50″ of FIG. 7B).

In any event, after a start operation, the operational flow 900 of FIG.9 may move to an augmentation data receiving operation 902 for receivingaugmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations, theone or more first augmentations having been included in a firstaugmented view of a first actual scene that was remotely displayed at aremote augmented reality (AR) device. For instance, and as illustration,the augmentation data acquiring module 102* of the AR device 50* of FIG.7A or 7B (e.g., the augmentation data acquiring module 102′ of FIG. 7Aor the augmentation data acquiring module 102″ of FIG. 7B) receivingaugmentation data 55 (e.g., see FIG. 5A or 5B) associated with one ormore first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B aspresented by, for example, AR device 70 of FIG. 5A or 5B), the one ormore first augmentations 64 a having been included in a first augmentedview (e.g., augmented view 60 b of FIG. 6B) of a first actual scene(e.g., actual view 60 a of FIG. 6A) that was remotely displayed at aremote augmented reality (AR) device 70 (see FIG. 5A or 5B). Note thatin various embodiments the phrase “remote” or “remotely” are used hereto indicate, for example, that the display of the first augmented view60 b separately at a “second” AR device 70 rather than at the first ARdevice 50* where the augmentation data receiving operation 902 is to beexecuted. Further, the use of the phrase “remote” or “remotely” hereindoes not require or suggest that first AR device 50* and the second ARdevice 70 be at least some minimum distance away from each other. Infact, in some implementations, the first AR device 50* and the second ARdevice 70 may be adjacent to each other or may be spatially very closeto each other (see, for example, the above discussion related to FIG.5B). Also, note again that “*” is used herein as a wildcard. Thus,references to the AR device 50* may be in reference to the AR device 50′of FIG. 7A or to the AR device 50″ of FIG. 7B.

As further illustrated in FIG. 9, operational flow 900 may also includean augmentation displaying operation 904 for displaying one or moresecond augmentations in a second augmented view of a second actualscene, the displaying of the one or more second augmentations being inresponse, at least in part, to the augmentation data. For instance, theaugmentation presenting module 104* (e.g., the augmentation presentingmodule 104′ of FIG. 7A or the augmentation presenting module 104″ ofFIG. 7B) of the AR device 50* displaying (e.g., visually presenting orshowing locally through one or more display monitors 852—see FIG. 8D)one or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) ina second augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 h of FIG. 6H) of asecond actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 g of FIG. 6G), the displayingof the one or more second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) being inresponse (e.g., being prompted), at least in part, to the augmentationdata 55 (see FIG. 5A).

In addition to the augmentation receiving operation 902 and theaugmentation displaying operation 904, operational flow 900 may alsoinclude an usage data transmitting operation 906 for transmitting to theremote AR device usage data that indicates usage information related atleast to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data, the usagedata to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentationError! Reference source not found. For instance, the usagedata relaying module 106* (e.g., the usage data relaying module 106′ ofFIG. 7A or the usage data relaying module 10james6″ of FIG. 7B) of theAR device 50* transmitting (e.g., wirelessly relaying or relaying viaone or more wireless and/or wired networks) to the remote AR device 70(see FIGS. 5A or 5B) usage data 56 that indicates usage informationrelated at least to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data55, the usage data 56 to facilitate the remote AR device 70 to displayone or more third augmentations (which in some cases may directly orindirectly indicate the successful reception by the AR device 508 of theaugmentation data). In doing so, augmented views that may be presentedby, for example, two different AR devices (e.g., the AR device 50* andthe AR device 70 of FIG. 5A or FIG. 5B) may be advantageouslycoordinated.

As will be described below, the augmentation data receiving operation902, the augmentation displaying operation 904, and the usage datatransmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 may be executed in a variety ofdifferent ways in various alternative implementations. FIGS. 10A, 10B,10C, and 10D, for example, illustrate at least some of the alternativeways that the augmentation data receiving operation 902 of FIG. 9 may beexecuted in various alternative implementations. For example, theaugmentation data receiving operation 902 in some implementations mayinclude an operation 1002 for receiving the augmentation data via one ormore wireless and/or wired networks as illustrated in FIG. 10A. Forinstance, the augmentation data acquiring module 102* of the AR device50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A) receiving the augmentationdata 55 (see FIG. 5A or 5B) via one or more wireless and/or wirednetworks 58 (e.g., WLAN, WAN, WiMAX, PTSN, cellular data network, PAN,and/or other types of communication networks).

As further illustrated in FIG. 10A, the augmentation data receivingoperation 902 may additionally or alternatively include one or moreoperations including an operation 1003 for receiving the augmentationdata from the AR device. For instance, the augmentation data acquiringmodule 102* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (or FIG. 5A or 5B)receiving the augmentation data 55 from the AR device 70 (see FIG. 5A or5B).

In the same or alternative implementations, the augmentation datareceiving operation 902 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1004 for receiving the augmentation data including data thatprovides content information related to the one or more firstaugmentations. For instance, the augmentation data acquiring module 102*including the augmentation content information acquiring module 802 (seeFIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or5B) receiving the augmentation data 55 (see FIG. 5A or 5B) when theaugmentation content information acquiring module 802 receivesaugmentation data 55 (see FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides contentinformation (e.g., textual information related to the Mona Lisa includedin the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) related to the one or more firstaugmentations (see, for example augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B).

In the same or alternative implementations, the augmentation datareceiving operation 902 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1005 for receiving the augmentation data including data thatprovides information related to one or more visual items present in thefirst scene and that are affiliated with the one or more firstaugmentations. For instance, the augmentation data acquiring module 102*including the visual item information acquiring module 804 (see FIG. 8A)of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)receiving the augmentation data 55 when the visual item informationacquiring module 804 receives (and in some cases process or interpret)data that provides information (e.g., background information) related toone or more visual items (e.g., visual item 62 a of FIG. 6A) present inthe first scene (e.g., actual scene 61 a of FIG. 6A) and that areaffiliated with the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation64 of FIG. 6B).

In the same or alternative implementations, the augmentation datareceiving operation 902 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1006 for receiving the augmentation data including data thatprovides format information related to one or more formats of the one ormore first augmentations. For instance, the augmentation data acquiringmodule 102* including the augmentation format information acquiringmodule 806 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as wellas FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the augmentation data 55 when theaugmentation format information acquiring module 806 receives (and insome cases process or interpret) data that provides format informationrelated to one or more formats of the one or more first augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B).

As further illustrated in FIG. 10A, operation 1006 in some cases mayfurther include an operation 1007 for receiving the data that providesformat information including data that provides one or more visibilityrules that include one or more directives for displaying the one or morefirst augmentations. For instance, the augmentation format informationacquiring module 806 including the visibility rule acquiring module 808(see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5Aor 5B) receiving (e.g., obtaining or acquiring wirelessly) the data thatprovides format information including data, as received by thevisibility rule acquiring module 808, that provides one or morevisibility rules that include one or more directives (e.g., instructionsor commands) for displaying the one or more first augmentations (e.g.,the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B).

Note that in various embodiments the one or more visibility rules thatmay be received by the AR device 50* may be the one or more visibilityrules that were the basis for generating the one or more firstaugmentations (augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) that was generated andpresented by the remote AR device (e.g., the AR device 70 of FIG. 5A or5B). Thus, the following discussions related to the received one or morevisibility rules, as received by, for example, the AR device 50* of FIG.7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) will primarily be referencing theactual and augmented views illustrated in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, and6F, which as described earlier are exemplary actual and the augmentedviews provided by the “remote” AR device 70 of FIGS. 5A and 5B Note thatthe AR device 70 of FIGS. 5A and 5B, for purposes of the followingdiscussions, may be referred to as being a “remote” device simplybecause it is a separate and distinct device from the AR device 50*.Thus, the word “remote” as used herein does not imply or suggest that,for example, the AR device 70 is some distance away from the other ARdevice 50*. That is, and as somewhat illustrated in FIG. 5B, the ARdevice 50* and the “remote” AR device 70 may be spatially very close toeach other or may be far away from each other.

Turing now to FIG. 10B, operation 1007 may include one or moreadditional operations in various alternative implementations includingin some cases an operation 1008 for receiving the data that provides theone or more visibility rules including data that provides one or morevisibility rules that directs inclusion of the one or more firstaugmentations in an augmented view of an actual scene, the one or morevisibility rules further directing the one or more first augmentationsto be affiliated with one or more specified visual items. For instance,the visibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data(e.g., augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one ormore visibility rules including data that provides one or morevisibility rules that directs inclusion of the one or more firstaugmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) in an augmented view60 b (see FIG. 6B) of an actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 a of FIG.6A), the one or more visibility rules further directing (e.g.,instructing) the one or more first augmentations 64 a to be affiliatedwith one or more specified visual items (e.g., the visual item 62 a ofFIGS. 6A and 6B or the visual item 62 c of FIGS. 6G and 6H, which isvisually essentially the same as visual item 62 a).

In some implementations, operation 1008 may further include an operation1009 for receiving the data that provides the one or more visibilityrules including data that provides one or more visibility rules thatdirects the inclusion of the one or more first augmentations in theaugmented view in response to the one or more specified visual itemsbeing detected as being present in the actual scene. For instance, thevisibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g.,augmentation data 55) that provides the one or more visibility rulesincluding data that provides one or more visibility rules that directs(e.g., instructs) the inclusion of the one or more first augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) in the augmented view (e.g.,augmented view 60 b of FIG. 6B) in response to the one or more specifiedvisual items (e.g., visual item 62 a of FIG. 6A) being detected as beingpresent in the actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 a of FIG. 6A).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1007 mayalternatively or additionally include an operation 1010 for receivingthe data that provides the one or more visibility rules including datathat provides one or more visibility rules that directs the one or morefirst augmentations to be at least semi-transparent in an augmented viewof an actual scene in order to prevent one or more priority visual itemsthat are present in the actual scene from being completely obfuscated bythe one or more first augmentations in the augmented view. For instance,the visibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data(e.g., augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one ormore visibility rules including data that provides one or morevisibility rules that directs the one or more first augmentations (e.g.,the augmentation 64 b of FIG. 6D) to be at least semi-transparent in anaugmented view 60 d (see FIG. 6D) of an actual scene (e.g., actual view60 c of FIG. 6C) in order to prevent one or more priority visual items(e.g., visual item 62 b of FIGS. 6C and 6D) that are present in theactual scene (e.g., actual view 60 c of FIG. 6C) from being completelyobfuscated by the one or more first augmentations 64 b in the augmentedview 60 d (see FIG. 6D). Note that in various embodiments, a “priorityvisual item,” as discussed above, may be in reference to a visual item(e.g., visual item 62 b in FIG. 6C) that may have been identified ordesignated by, for example, one or more visibility rules as havingpriority, at least visually, over augmentations that may be included inan augmented view of an actual scene. That is, when a priority visualitem, such as visual item 62 b in FIG. 6C, is detected as being presentin an actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 c of FIG. 6C) then anyaugmentations that may be included into an augmented view 60 d (see FIG.6D) of the actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 c) may not be allowed toat least entirely obstruct or hide the view of the priority visual item(e.g., visual item 62 b of FIG. 6D).

As further illustrated in FIG. 10B, operation 1010 may, in some cases,further include an operation 1011 for receiving the data that providesthe one or more visibility rules including data that provides one ormore visibility rules that directs the one or more first augmentationsto be conditionally transparent in the augmented view of the actualscene so long as the one or more priority visual items are detected asbeing present in the actual scene. For instance, the visibility ruleacquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data that provides the one ormore visibility rules including data (e.g., augmentation data 55 of FIG.5A or 5B) that provides one or more visibility rules that directs theone or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6A) tobe conditionally transparent (e.g., completely invisible) in theaugmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 e of FIG. 6E in which theaugmentation 64 a of FIG. 6A is replaced with a functional augmentation64 c) of the actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 c of FIG. 6C) so long asthe one or more priority visual items (e.g., visual item 62 b of FIG.6C) are detected as being present in the actual scene (e.g., actual view60 c of FIG. 6C).

In the same or different implementations, operation 1007 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1012 for receivingthe data that provides the one or more visibility rules including datathat provides one or more visibility rules that directs the one or morefirst augmentations to be one or more informational augmentations thatprovide information related to one or more visual items present in theaugmented view and/or in the actual scene. For instance, the visibilityrule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7Aor 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g., augmentationdata 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or more visibility rulesincluding data that provides one or more visibility rules that directsthe one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64 b, and64 d of FIGS. 6B, 6D, and 6F) to be one or more informationalaugmentations (e.g., augmentation that provide content information intextual form) that provide information related to one or more visualitems (e.g., visual item 62 a of FIGS. 6A to 6F) present in theaugmented view (e.g., augmented views 60 b, 60 d, and 60 f of FIGS. 6B,6D, and 6F) and/or in the actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 a of FIG.6A).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1007 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1013 for receivingthe data that provides the one or more visibility rules including datathat provides one or more visibility rules that directs the one or morefirst augmentations to be one or more functional augmentations asillustrated in FIG. 10C. For instance, the visibility rule acquiringmodule 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as wellas FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g., the augmentation data 55 ofFIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or more visibility rules includingdata that provides one or more visibility rules that directs the one ormore first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 c of FIG. 6E) to be oneor more functional augmentations (e.g., an augmentation that isinteractive and that can be used to, for example, retrieve additionalinformation). For example, in FIG. 6E, augmentation 64 c may be selectedby a user (e.g., user 51 of FIGS. 5A and 5B) in order to retrieve anddisplay information related to the visual item 62 a.

As further illustrated in FIG. 10C, operation 1013 may additionallyinclude or involve an operation 1014 for receiving the data thatprovides the one or more visibility rules including data that providesone or more visibility rules that directs the one or more firstaugmentations to be one or more functional augmentations that are in aform of one or more functional tags that when selected or activatedresults in display of information related to one or more visual itemspresent in the first augmented view and/or in the first actual scene.For instance, the visibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receivingthe data (e.g., the augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that providesthe one or more visibility rules including data that provides one ormore visibility rules that directs the one or more first augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 c of FIG. 6E) to be one or more functionalaugmentations that are in a form of one or more functional tags thatwhen selected or activated results in display of information related toone or more visual items (e.g., visual item 62 a in FIG. 6E) present inthe first augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 e of FIG. 6E) and/orin the first actual scene (e.g. actual view 60 c of FIG. 6C).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1007 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1015 for receivingthe data that provides the one or more visibility rules including datathat provides one or more visibility rules that directs inclusion of theone or more first augmentations at one or more specific locations of anaugmented view of an actual scene. For instance, the visibility ruleacquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g., the augmentationdata 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or more visibility rulesincluding data that provides one or more visibility rules that directsinclusion of the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64a of FIG. 6B) at one or more specific locations of an augmented view(e.g., locating the augmentation 64 a to the right of the visual item 62a in the augmented view 60 b of FIG. 6B) of an actual scene (e.g.,actual view 60 a of FIG. 6A).

As further illustrated in FIG. 10C, operation 1015 may include one ormore additional operations including in some cases an operation 1016 forreceiving the data that provides the one or more visibility rulesincluding data that provides one or more visibility rules that directsthe inclusion of the one or more first augmentations at one or morespecific locations that is adjacent or proximate to one or more visualitems in the augmented view, the one or more first augmentations beingaffiliated with the one or more visual items. For instance, thevisibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g.,the augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or morevisibility rules including data that provides one or more visibilityrules that directs the inclusion of the one or more first augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) at one or more specific locationsthat is adjacent or proximate to one or more visual items (e.g., visualitem 62 a of FIG. 6B) in the augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 bof FIG. 6B), the one or more first augmentations 64 a being affiliatedwith the one or more visual items 62 a.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1015 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1017 for receivingthe data that provides the one or more visibility rules including datathat provides one or more visibility rules that directs the inclusion ofthe one or more first augmentations at one or more specific locations ofthe augmented view in order to prevent one or more priority visual itemsthat are included in the actual scene from being obfuscated by the oneor more first augmentations in the augmented view. For instance, thevisibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g.,the augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or morevisibility rules including data that provides one or more visibilityrules that directs the inclusion of the one or more first augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 d of FIG. 6F) at one or more specific locationsof the augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 f of FIG. 6F) in order toprevent one or more priority visual items (e.g., visual item 62 b inFIGS. 6C and 6F) that are included in the actual scene (e.g., actualview 60 c of FIG. 6C) from being obfuscated by the one or more firstaugmentations 64 d in the augmented view 60 f.

In various implementations, operation 1007 for receiving the data thatprovides format information including data that provides one or morevisibility rules that include one or more directives for displaying theone or more first augmentations may include an operation 1018 forreceiving the data that provides the one or more visibility rulesincluding data that provides one or more visibility rules thatidentifies one or more priority visual items that are directed by thevisibility rules to have visibility priority over the one or more firstaugmentations in an augmented view of an actual scene. For instance, thevisibility rule acquiring module 808 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) receiving the data (e.g.,the augmentation data 55 of FIG. 5A or 5B) that provides the one or morevisibility rules including data that provides one or more visibilityrules that identifies one or more priority visual items (e.g., visualitem 62 b of FIGS. 6C, 6D, 6E, and 6F) that are directed by thevisibility rules to have visibility priority over the one or more firstaugmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 b, 64 c, or 64 d of FIG. 6D, 6E, or6F) in an augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 d, 60 e, or 60 f ofFIG. 6D, 6E, or 6F) of an actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 c of FIG.6C).

Turning now to FIG. 10D, in various implementations, the augmentationsdata receiving operation 902 of FIG. 9 may actually include or involvean initial operation 1019 for transmitting a request to the AR devicefor the augmentation data. For instance, the request transmitting module810 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG.5A or 5B) transmitting a request (e.g., a command or directive) to theAR device 70 for the augmentation data 55.

As further illustrated in FIG. 10D, in some implementations, operation1019 may further include an operation 1020 for transmitting the requestfor the augmentation data in response to a direct or indirect requestfrom a user for the augmentation data. For instance, the requesttransmitting module 810 (see FIG. 8A) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the request for theaugmentation data 55 in response to a direct or indirect request from auser 51 for the augmentation data 55 (see, for example, FIG. 5A or 5B).

Referring back to the FIG. 9, the augmentation displaying operation 904similar to the augmentation data receiving operation 902 of FIG. 9 maybe executed in a number of different ways in various alternativeimplementations as illustrated in FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, 11D, and 11E. Forexample, in some implementations, the augmentation displaying operation904 of FIG. 9 may include an operation 1121 for displaying locally theone or more second augmentations in the second augmented view via one ormore display monitors as illustrated in FIG. 11A. For instance, theaugmentation presenting module 104* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying locally at, for example, the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 5A or 5B the one or more second augmentations (e.g.,the augmentation 64 e illustrated in FIG. 6H) in the second augmentedview (e.g., the augmented view 60 d of FIG. 6H) via one or more displaymonitors 852 (see FIG. 8D.

In the same or different implementations, the augmentation displayingoperation 904 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1122 for displaying the one or more second augmentations inthe second augmented view by displaying one or more second augmentationsin the second augmented view that are same or substantially same as theone or more first augmentations that were remotely displayed at theremote AR device as further illustrated in FIG. 11. For instance, theaugmentation presenting module 104* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or more secondaugmentations in the second augmented view by displaying one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 f of FIG. 6J) in thesecond augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 j of FIG. 6J) that aresame or substantially same as the one or more first augmentations (e.g.,the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) that were remotely displayed at theremote AR device 70.

In some cases, operation 1122 may further include an operation 1123 fordisplaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview by displaying one or more second augmentations that contain thesame or substantially same content information as content informationincluded in the one or more first augmentations displayed by the ARdevice. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104* of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying theone or more second augmentations in the second augmented view bydisplaying (e.g., visually presenting) one or more second augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 f of FIG. 6J) that contain the same orsubstantially same content information as content information includedin the one or more first augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 a ofFIG. 6B) displayed by the AR device 70.

As further illustrated in FIG. 11A, the augmentation displayingoperation 904 of FIG. 9, in some implementations, may additionally oralternatively include an operation 1124 for displaying the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view by displaying one ormore second augmentations that contain content information that mirror aportion of content information included in the one or more firstaugmentations displayed by the AR device. For instance, the augmentationpresenting module 104* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well asFIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view by displaying (e.g., visually presenting) one ormore second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H, whichis a shorter version of augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) that containcontent information that mirror a portion of content information (e.g.,textual information) included in the one or more first augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6A) displayed by the AR device 70.

In the same or different implementations, the augmentation displayingoperation 904 may additionally or alternatively include an operation1125 for displaying the one or more second augmentations in the secondaugmented view by displaying one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view that are modified version or versions of the oneor more first augmentations that were remotely displayed at the remoteAR device. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the modified augmentation presenting module 812 (see FIG. 8B)of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)displaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview when the modified augmentation presenting module 812 displays oneor more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H orthe augmentation 64 g of FIG. 6K) in the second augmented view (e.g.,the augmented view 60 h or the augmented 60 k of FIG. 6H or 6K) that aremodified version or versions of the one or more first augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6A) that were remotely displayed atthe remote AR device 70.

In the same or different implementations, the augmentation displayingoperation 904 may additionally or alternatively include an operation1126 for displaying the one or more second augmentations in the secondaugmented view by displaying one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view that are affiliated with one or more specifiedvisual items as specified by the augmentation data. For instance, theaugmentation presenting module 104* including the affiliatedaugmentation presenting module 814 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device 50* ofFIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view when the affiliatedaugmentation presenting module 814 displays (e.g., visually presents)one or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) inthe second augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 h of FIG. 6H)that are affiliated with one or more specified visual items (e.g., thevisual item 62 c of FIG. 6H) as specified by the augmentation data 55(see FIG. 5A or 5B).

As further illustrated in FIG. 11A, operation 1126 may, in some cases,further include or involve an operation 1127 for displaying the one ormore second augmentations in the second augmented view by displaying oneor more second augmentations in the second augmented view that wereprompted to be displayed in the second augmented view in response todetecting the one or more specified visual items in the second actualscene. For instance, the affiliated augmentation presenting module 814including the visual item sensing module 816 (see FIG. 8B) of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying theone or more second augmentations in the second augmented view bydisplaying one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 eof FIG. 6H) in the second augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 hof FIG. 6H) that were prompted to be displayed in the second augmentedview in response to detecting by the visual item sensing module 816 ofthe presence of the one or more specified visual items (e.g., visualitem 62 c) in the second actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 g of FIG.6G).

Referring now to FIG. 11B, in some implementations, the augmentationdisplaying operation 904 of FIG. 9 may actually involve or include anoperation 1128 for displaying the one or more second augmentations inthe second augmented view by displaying the one or more secondaugmentations at one or more specific locations in the second augmentedview. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104* includingthe location specific augmentation presenting module 818 (see FIG. 8B)of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)displaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview when the location specific augmentation presenting module 818displays the one or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 eof FIG. 6H) at one or more specific locations (e.g., adjacent to visualitem 62 c in FIG. 6H) in the second augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H).

As further illustrated in FIG. 11B, operation 1128 may include orinvolve one or more additional operations including, for example, anoperation 1129 for displaying the one or more second augmentations inthe second augmented view by displaying the one or more secondaugmentations at one or more specific locations in the second augmentedview that are adjacent to or proximate to one or more locations of oneor more specified visual items as specified by the augmentation data.For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104* including thelocation specific augmentation presenting module 818 of the AR device50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one ormore second augmentations in the second augmented view when the locationspecific augmentation presenting module 818 displays the one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) at one or morespecific locations in the second augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) thatare adjacent to or proximate to one or more locations in the augmentedview 60 h of one or more specified visual items (e.g., visual item 62 c)as specified by the augmentation data 55.

In the same or different implementations, operation 1128 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1130 for displayingthe one or more second augmentations in the second augmented view bydisplaying the one or more second augmentations at one or more specificlocations in the second augmented view in order to prevent one or morepriority visual items that are present in the second actual scene frombeing obfuscated by the one or more second augmentations in the secondaugmented view. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the location specific augmentation presenting module 818 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displayingthe one or more second augmentations in the second augmented view whenthe location specific augmentation presenting module 818 displays theone or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 i of FIG. 6N) atone or more specific locations in the second augmented view (e.g.,augmented view 60 n of FIG. 6N) in order to prevent one or more priorityvisual items (e.g., visual item 62 d of FIG. 6N) that are present in thesecond actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 g of FIG. 6G) from beingobfuscated by the one or more second augmentations 64 i in the secondaugmented view 60 n (see FIG. 6N).

In various implementations, the augmentation display operation 904 mayinclude or involve an operation 1131 for displaying the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view by displaying one ormore second augmentations that are at least semi-transparent in thesecond augmented view in order to prevent one or more priority visualitems that are present in the second actual scene from being fullyobfuscated by the one or more second augmentations in the secondaugmented view. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the semi-transparent augmentation presenting module 820 (seeFIG. 8B) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or5B) displaying the one or more second augmentations in the secondaugmented view when the semi-transparent augmentation presenting module820 displays one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64g of FIG. 6K) that are at least semi-transparent in the second augmentedview (e.g., augmented view 60 k of FIG. 6K) in order to prevent one ormore priority visual items (e.g., visual item 62 d of FIG. 6K) that arepresent in the second actual scene (e.g., actual view 60 g of FIG. 6G)from being fully obfuscated by the one or more second augmentations 64 gin the second augmented view 60 k.

In some cases operation 1131 may further include an operation 1132 fordisplaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview by displaying one or more second augmentations that areconditionally transparent in the second augmented view so long as theone or more priority visual items are detected as being present in theactual second scene. For instance, the augmentation presenting module104* including the conditionally transparent augmentation presentingmodule 822 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as wellas FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view when the conditionally transparent augmentationpresenting module 822 displays one or more second augmentations (e.g.,augmentation 64 f of FIG. 6J) that are conditionally transparent in thesecond augmented view (e.g., augmented view 60 m of FIG. 6M) so long asthe one or more priority visual items 62 d (see FIG. 6M) are detected asbeing present in the actual second scene (e.g., actual view 60 g of FIG.6G). In such cases where an augmentation (e.g., augmentation 64 f ofFIG. 6J) is conditionally transparent, the second augmented view (e.g.,augmented view 60 m of FIG. 6M) may include an augmentation 64 h (seeFIG. 6M) that may be functional and that may be selected or activated(e.g., “clicked”) in order to retrieve and display the augmentation 64 f(see, FIG. 6J).

In some implementations, the augmentation display operation 904 of FIG.9 may involve or include an operation 1133 for displaying the one ormore second augmentations in the second augmented view by displaying oneor more second augmentations that are one or more functionalaugmentations. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the functional augmentation presenting module 824 (see FIG.8B) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)displaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview when the functional augmentation presenting module 824 displays oneor more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 h of FIG. 6M)that are one or more functional augmentations (e.g., an augmentationthat can be selected or activated by a user in order to retrieve anddisplay, for example, an informational augmentation).

As further illustrated in FIG. 11B, operation 1133 may further includean operation 1134 for displaying the one or more second augmentations inthe second augmented view by displaying one or more second augmentationsthat are one or more functional augmentations that are in a form of oneor more functional tags that when selected or activated by a userresults in display of information related to one or more specifiedvisual items. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the functional augmentation presenting module 824 of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying theone or more second augmentations in the second augmented view when thefunctional augmentation presenting module 824 displays one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 h of FIG. 6M or augmentation64 k of FIG. 6Q) that are one or more functional augmentations that arein a form of one or more functional tags (e.g., note that augmentation64 h of FIG. 6M is a functional augmentation that is shaped like a tabwhile augmentation 64 kk of FIG. 6Q is another functional augmentationthat is shaped like a book or page marker) that when selected oractivated by a user (e.g., user 51 of FIG. 5A or 5B) results in displayof information related to one or more specified visual items (e.g.,visual item 62 c of FIG. 6M).

In some cases, operation 1234 may, in turn, include an operation 1135for displaying the one or more second augmentations that are one or morefunctional augmentations that are in the form of one or more functionaltags that when selected or activated by a user results in display ofinformation related to one or more specified visual items, the one ormore second augmentations in the form of the one or more functionaltags, prior to being selected or activated, being devoid of informationrelated to the one or more specified visual items. For instance, thefunctional augmentation presenting module 824 of the AR device 50* ofFIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or moresecond augmentations that are one or more functional augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 h of FIG. 6M) that are in the form of one or morefunctional tags that when selected or activated by a user (e.g., theuser 51 of FIG. 5A or 5B) results in display of information related toone or more specified visual items (e.g., visual item 62 c of FIG. 6M),the one or more second augmentations 64 h in the form of the one or morefunctional tags, prior to being selected or activated, being devoid ofinformation related to the one or more specified visual items 62 c.

Referring now to FIG. 11C, in various implementations, the augmentationdisplaying operation 904 may include an operation 1136 for displayingthe one or more second augmentations in the second augmented view bygenerating the one or more second augmentations based on the receivedaugmentation data and based on environmental context in which the secondaugmented view is to be displayed. For instance, the augmentationpresenting module 104* including the augmentation data and context basedaugmentation providing module 826 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device 50* ofFIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view by having the contextbased augmentation providing module 826 generate the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based on the receivedaugmentation data 55 and based on environmental context (e.g., theenvironment surrounding the AR device 50* in FIG. 5A or 5B) in which thesecond augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m,60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

As further illustrated in FIG. 11C, operation 1136 may include one ormore additional operations including, in some cases, an operation 1137for generating the one or more second augmentations based on contentinformation and one or more visibility rules provided by the receivedaugmentation data and based on the environmental context in which thesecond augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, the augmentationdata and context based augmentation providing module 826 of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generating theone or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based oncontent information (e.g., textual information) and one or morevisibility rules (e.g., directives that instructs or commands when andhow augmentations are to be displayed) provided by the receivedaugmentation data 55 and based on the environmental context (e.g., theactivities of the user 51 employing the AR device 51) in which thesecond augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m,60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

In the same or different implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively an operation 1138 for generating the oneor more second augmentations based on a combination of contentinformation and one or more visibility rules provided by the receivedaugmentation data, one or more visibility rules provided by one or moresources other than the AR device, and the environmental context in whichthe second augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, theaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generatingthe one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f,64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based on acombination of content information and one or more visibility rulesprovided by the received augmentation data 55, one or more visibilityrules provided by one or more sources (e.g., one or more third partysources such as one or more third party network servers) other than theAR device 52, and the environmental context in which the secondaugmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n,or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

Referring now to FIG. 12C, in various implementations the augmentationdata transmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally oralternatively include an operation 1139 for generating the one or moresecond augmentations based on a combination of content information andone or more visibility rules provided by the received augmentation data,one or more visibility rules that were locally provided, and theenvironmental context in which the second augmented view is to bedisplayed. For instance, the augmentation data and context basedaugmentation providing module 826 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generating the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based on a combination ofcontent information and one or more visibility rules provided by thereceived augmentation data 55, one or more visibility rules that werelocally provided by the AR device 50*, and the environmental context inwhich the second augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to bedisplayed. That is, the AR device 50* may generate or provide the one ormore second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) for visualpresentation through one or more display monitors 852 based on theenvironmental context (e.g., whether the user 51 is exercising, drivingan automobile, shopping, or performing other activities) surrounding theAR device 50* and based on a combination of one or more visibility rulesprovided by the received augmentation data 55 (as provided by the remoteAR device 70) and one or more visibility rules provided by the AR device50* (e.g., visibility rules 114 as provided from memory 114). Whenlocally provided visibility rules, as provided for example by the ARdevice 50*, conflict with the visibility rules provided by a remote ARdevice 70 then one way such conflict can be resolve is to make, forexample, the locally provided visibility rules be superseding visibilityrules that supersedes the visibility rules provided by a remote sourceor sources. Of course, in alternative implementations, visibility rulesthat are provided by remote sources may supersede visibility rulesprovided locally by the AR device 50*.

In some implementations, operation 1136 may additionally oralternatively include an operation 1140 for generating the one or moresecond augmentations based on content information provided by thereceived augmentation data, based on one or more locally providedvisibility rules, and based on the environmental context in which thesecond augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, the augmentationdata and context based augmentation providing module 826 of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generating theone or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based oncontent information provided by the received augmentation data 55, basedon one or more locally provided visibility rules, and based on theenvironmental context in which the second augmented view (e.g., theaugmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K,6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1141 for generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on location data indicative of the environmental contextin which the second augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, theaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata 55 and based on location data (e.g., locational data provided by aGPS 875 or another type of location sensor 874) indicative of theenvironmental context in which the second augmented view is to bedisplayed. That is, the determined location of the user 51, as well asthe AR device 50*, may infer or indicate the type ofenvironment/activities that the user 51 may be participating in.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1142 for generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on visual data indicative of the environmental context inwhich the second augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, theaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generatingthe one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f,64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based onthe received augmentation data 55 and based on visual data indicative ofthe environmental context (e.g., visual data that indicates the presenceof one or more visual items in the surrounding environment of the ARdevice 50*, which when detected infers or suggests the activities of theuser 51) in which the second augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) isto be displayed.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1143 for generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on social networking data obtained through one or moresocial networking sources and that are indicative of the environmentalcontext in which the second augmented view is to be displayed. Forinstance, the augmentation data and context based augmentation providingmodule 826 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or5B) generating the one or more second augmentations (e.g., theaugmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K,6M, 6N, or 6Q) based on the received augmentation data 55 and based onsocial networking data (e.g., social networking data as provided by, forexample, micro-blogs or status reports that indicates that the user 51is traveling, at a business meeting, at a sporting event, shopping, orother activities) obtained through one or more social networking sources(e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, etc.) and that are indicative ofthe environmental context in which the second augmented view (e.g., theaugmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K,6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1144 for generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on audio data indicative of the environmental context inwhich the second augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, theaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generatingthe one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f,64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based onthe received augmentation data 55 and based on audio data (e.g., audiorecording of ocean waves breaking, street noise, heavy breathing,unrecognizable or recognizable voices, and so forth) indicative of theenvironmental context in which the second augmented view (e.g., theaugmented view 60 h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K,6M, 6N, or 6Q) is to be displayed.

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1136 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1145 for generatingthe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on movement data indicative of the environmental contextin which the second augmented view is to be displayed. For instance, theaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing module 826 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) generatingthe one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f,64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) based onthe received augmentation data 55 and based on movement data (e.g., datacollected using, for example, one or more accelerometers 877, one ormore gyroscope 878, and so forth) indicative of the environmentalcontext in which the second augmented view (e.g., the augmented view 60h, 60 j, 60 k, 60 m, 60 n, or 6 q of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) isto be displayed. For example, the format of the one or more secondaugmentations to be displayed may be adjusted (e.g., reducing the sizeof the one or more second augmentations or moving the one or more secondaugmentations to the edge or corner of the augmented view) in order toreduce the visual obstruction caused by the one or more secondaugmentations if it appears that based on movement data the user 51appears to be driving a car or riding a bicycle.

Referring now to FIG. 11E, in the same or alternative implementations,augmentation displaying operation 904 of FIG. 9 may additionally oralternatively include an operation 1146 for displaying the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view including displayingone or more indicators that directly or indirectly indicate differencesbetween the one or more first augmentations and the one or more secondaugmentations. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104*including the difference indicator presenting module 828 (see FIG. 8B)of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)displaying the one or more second augmentations in the second augmentedview when the difference indicator presenting module 828 displays one ormore indicators (see augmentation 64 m of FIG. 6R) that directly orindirectly indicate differences between the one or more firstaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) and the one ormore second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6R). Forexample, FIG. 6R illustrates an augmented view 60 r that may bedisplayed by the AR device 50* of FIG. 5A or 5B that includes anaugmentation 64 m (e.g., a functional augmentation that can be selectedor “clicked” by the user 51 in order to retrieve) that indirectlyindicates the difference (e.g., augmentation 64 m does have the name ofthe painting nor the full summary) between the augmentation 64 mpresented by the AR device 50* and the augmentation 64 a (see FIG. 6B)that was presented remotely by the AR device 70.

As further illustrated in FIG. 11E, operation 1146 may include one ormore additional operations including in some cases an operation 1147 fordisplaying the one or more indicators indicating the differences betweenthe one or more first augmentations and the one or more secondaugmentations by displaying one or more modifications applied to the oneor more first augmentations in order to generate the one or more secondaugmentations as further illustrated in FIG. 14. For instance, theaugmentation presenting module 104* including the modification indicatorpresenting module 830 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or more indicatorsindicating the differences between the one or more first augmentationsand the one or more second augmentations when the modification indicatorpresenting module 830 displays one or more modifications (see disabledtab 65 a, which is semi-transparent, in augmentation 64 n of FIG. 5)applied to the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 aof FIG. 6B) in order to generate the one or more second augmentations(e.g., augmentation 64 n of FIG. 6S).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1146 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1148 for displayingthe one or more indicators indicating the differences between the one ormore first augmentations and the one or more second augmentations bydisplaying one or more degrees of correspondence between the one or morefirst augmentations and the one or more second augmentations. Forinstance, the augmentation presenting module 104* including the degreeof correspondence presenting module 832 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one ormore indicators indicating the differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations when the degreeof correspondence presenting module 832 displays one or more degrees ofcorrespondence (e.g., augmentation 64 p of FIG. 6T) between the one ormore first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) and theone or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6T).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1146 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1149 for displayingthe one or more indicators indicating the differences between the one ormore first augmentations and the one or more second augmentations bydisplaying one or more degrees of difference between the one or morefirst augmentations and the one or more second augmentations. Forinstance, the augmentation presenting module 104* including the degreeof difference presenting module 832 (see FIG. 8B) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or moreindicators indicating the differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations when the degreeof difference presenting module 832 displays one or more degrees ofdifference (e.g., augmentation 64 q of FIG. 6U) between the one or morefirst augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B) and the one ormore second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6U).

the same or alternative implementations, operation 1146 may additionallyor alternatively include an operation 1150 for displaying one or moresecond augmentations that displays only a portion of content informationthat was displayed through the one or more first augmentations that wasremotely displayed, the content information that was displayed throughthe one or more first augmentations having been content informationrelated to one or more visual items, and displaying one or morefunctional augmentations that can be selected by a user for retrievingand displaying additional content information related to the one or morevisual items. For instance, the augmentation presenting module 104* ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displayingone or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H)that displays only a portion of content information that was displayedthrough the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a ofFIG. 6B) that was remotely displayed, the content information that wasdisplayed through the one or more first augmentations 64 b having beencontent information related to one or more visual (e.g., visual item 62c of FIG. 6H), and displaying one or more functional augmentations(e.g., functional tab 65 of FIG. 6H) that can be selected by a user forretrieving and displaying additional content information related to theone or more visual items (e.g., visual item 62 c of FIG. 6H).

In some implementations, operation 1150 may further include or involvean operation 1151 for displaying one or more functional augmentationsthat can be selected by the user for displaying all content informationrelated to the one or more visual items that was displayed through theone or more first augmentations. For instance, the functionalaugmentation presenting module 824 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) displaying the one or more functionalaugmentations (e.g., functional tab 65 of FIG. 6H) that can be selectedby the user for displaying all content information related to the one ormore visual items (e.g., visual item 62 a of FIGS. 6A and 6B, whichvisually is essentially the same as the visual item 62 c of FIG. 6H)that was displayed through the one or more first augmentations (e.g.,augmentation 64 a of FIG. 6B).

Similar to the augmentation data receiving operation 902 and theaugmentation displaying operation 904 of FIG. 9, the usage datatransmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 for transmitting to the remote ARdevice usage data that indicates usage information related at least tousage or non-usage of the received augmentation data, the usage data tofacilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations may be executed in a number of different ways in variousalternative embodiments as illustrated in FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C. Insome implementations, for example, the usage data transmitting operation906 may include an operation 1252 for transmitting the usage data to theremote AR device via one or more wireless and/or wired networks asillustrated in FIG. 12A. For instance, the network relaying module 836(see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50* of FIGS. 7A or 7B (as well as FIGS.5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 to the remote AR device 70 viaone or more wireless and/or wired networks 58.

In the same or alternative implementations, the usage data transmittingoperation 906 may additionally or alternatively include an operation1253 for transmitting the usage data including usage data that indicatesthat the augmentation data was successfully received. For instance, theusage data relaying module 106* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 includingusage data 56 that indicates that the augmentation data 55 wassuccessfully received by the AR device 50*.

As further illustrated in FIG. 12A, operation 1253 in variousimplementations may further include an operation 1254 for transmittingthe usage data in response to receiving the augmentation datasuccessfully. For instance, the usage data relaying module 106* of theAR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmittingthe usage data 56 in response to (e.g., prompted by) reception of theaugmentation data 55 successfully by the AR device 50*.

In the same or alternative implementations, the usage data transmittingoperation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1255 for transmitting the usage data including usage data thatindicates that the one or more second augmentations have been displayed.For instance, the usage data relaying module 106* of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data56 including usage data 56 that indicates that the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q) have been displayed by the ARdevice 50*.

In some implementations, operation 1255 may further include or involvean operation 1256 for transmitting the usage data in response to the oneor more second augmentations being locally displayed. For instance, theusage data relaying module 106* of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 in response to(e.g., prompted by) the one or more second augmentations (e.g., theaugmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or 64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K,6M, 6N, or 6Q) being locally displayed by the AR device 50*.

In the same or alternative implementations, the usage data transmittingoperation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternatively include anoperation 1257 for transmitting the usage data including usage data thatincludes the one or more second augmentations. For instance, the usagedata relaying module 106* including the augmentation relaying module 838(see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5Aor 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 when the augmentation relayingmodule 838 transmits usage data 56 that includes the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, or64 k of FIG. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, or 6Q).

Turning now to FIG. 12B, in various implementations, the usage datatransmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternativelyinclude an operation 1258 for transmitting the usage data includingusage data that indicates one or more differences between the one ormore first augmentations and the one or more second augmentations. Forinstance, the usage data relaying module 106* including the differenceindicating data relaying module 840 (see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50*of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data56 when the difference indicating data relaying module 840 transmitsusage data 56 that indicates one or more differences between the one ormore first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64 b, 64 c, and/or 64d of FIGS. 6B, 6D, 6E, and/or 6F) and the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i,and/or 64 k of FIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, and/or 6Q).

As further illustrated in FIG. 12B, operation 1258 may further includeone or more additional operations including, in some cases, an operation1259 for transmitting the usage data including usage data that indicatesone or more modifications that were made to the one or more firstaugmentations in order to generate the one or more second augmentations.For instance, the usage data relaying module 106* including themodification indicating data relaying module 842 (see FIG. 8C) of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting theusage data 56 when the modification indicating data relaying module 842transmits usage data 56 that indicates one or more modifications thatwere made to the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64a, 64 b, 64 c, and/or 64 d of FIGS. 6B, 6D, 6E, and/or 6F) in order togenerate the one or more second augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, and/or 64 k of FIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N,and/or 6Q).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1258 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1260 for transmittingthe usage data including usage data that indicates one or more degreesof correspondence between the one or more first augmentations and theone or more second augmentations. For instance, the usage data relayingmodule 106* including the degree of correspondence indicating datarelaying module 844 (see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B(as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 when thedegree of correspondence indicating data relaying module 844 transmitsusage data 56 that indicates one or more degrees of correspondencebetween the one or more first augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64b, 64 c, and/or 64 d of FIGS. 6B, 6D, 6E, and/or 6F) and the one or moresecond augmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64i, and/or 64 k of FIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, and/or 6Q).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1258 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1261 for transmittingthe usage data including usage data that indicates one or more degreesof difference between the one or more first augmentations and the one ormore second augmentations. For instance, the usage data relaying module106* including the degree of difference indicating data relaying module846 (see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG.5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 when the degree of differenceindicating data relaying module 846 transmits usage data 56 thatindicates one or more degrees of difference between the one or morefirst augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 a, 64 b, 64 c, and/or 64 d ofFIGS. 6B, 6D, 6E, and/or 6F) and the one or more second augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, and/or 64 k ofFIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, and/or 6Q).

Turning now to FIG. 12C, in various implementations, the usage datatransmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternativelyinclude an operation 1262 for transmitting the usage data includingusage data that indicates changes to the display of the one or moresecond augmentations. For instance, the usage data relaying module 106*including the augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848(see FIG. 8C) of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5Aor 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 when the augmentation changeindicating data relaying module 848 transmits usage data 56 thatindicates changes to the display of the one or more second augmentations(e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i, and/or 64 k ofFIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, and/or 6Q). For example, if the one or moresecond augmentations presented by the AR device 50* are one or morefunctional augmentations and if the user 51 elects to view an expandedversion of the one or more second augmentations with additionalsupplemental content information, than the usage data 56 transmitted tothe AR device 70 by the AR device 50* may indicate that the one or moresecond augmentations displayed by the AR device e50* are the expandedversion or versions of the one or more second augmentations.

As further illustrated in FIG. 12C, in some implementations, operation1262 may further include an operation 1263 for transmitting the usagedata that indicates changes to the display of the one or more secondaugmentations in response to the changes of the display of the one ormore second augmentations. For instance, the augmentation changeindicating data relaying module 848 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 thatindicates changes to the display of the one or more second augmentationstransmitting the usage data that indicates changes to the display of theone or more second augmentations in response to the changes of thedisplay of the one or more second augmentations in response to (e.g.prompted by) changes of the display of the one or more secondaugmentations (e.g., the augmentation 64 e, 64 f, 64 g, 64 h, 64 i,and/or 64 k of FIGS. 6H, 6J, 6K, 6M, 6N, and/or 6Q).

In the same or alternative implementations, operation 1262 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1264 for transmittingthe usage data including usage data that indicates that the one or moresecond augmentations that were included in the second augmented viewhave been replaced in the second augmented view with a one or more thirdaugmentations. For instance, the usage data relaying module 106*including the augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)transmitting the usage data 56 when the augmentation change indicatingdata relaying module 848 transmits usage data 56 that indicates that theone or more second augmentations (e.g., augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H)that were included in the second augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) havebeen replaced in the second augmented view 60 h with a one or more thirdaugmentations (e.g., augmentation 63 h of FIG. 6M).

As further illustrated in FIG. 2C, operation 1264 may include one ormore additional operations in various alternative implementationsincluding in some cases an operation 1265 for transmitting usage datathat indicates that the one or more second augmentations that wereincluded in the second augmented view have been replaced in the secondaugmented view with one or more third augmentations that include lesscontent information than the one or more second augmentations. Forinstance, the augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)transmitting usage 56 data that indicates that the one or more secondaugmentations 64 f (see FIG. 6J) that were included in the secondaugmented view 60 j (se FIG. 6J) have been replaced in the secondaugmented view 60 j with one or more third augmentations 64 (see FIG.6H) that include less content information than the one or more secondaugmentations 64 f (see FIG. 6J).

In the same or different implementations, operation 1264 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1266 for transmittingusage data that indicates that the one or more second augmentations thatwere included in the second augmented view have been replaced in thesecond augmented view with one or more third augmentations that are oneor more functional tags for retrieving and displaying the one or moresecond augmentations when the one or more functional tags are selectedor activated. For instance, the augmentation change indicating datarelaying module 848 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well asFIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting usage data that indicates that the one ormore second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) that were included in thesecond augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) have been replaced in thesecond augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) with one or more thirdaugmentations 64 h (see FIG. 6M) that are one or more functional tagsfor retrieving and displaying the one or more second augmentations 64 e(see FIG. 6H) when the one or more functional tags are selected oractivated (e.g., “clicked” using, for example, voice command or eyefocus or gaze application, or if employing a touchscreen such as whenthe AR device 50* is in the form of a smartphone 10 or a tablet computer20, touching the one or more functional tags displayed on thetouchscreen).

In some cases, operation 1266 may further include or involve anoperation 1267 for transmitting usage data that indicates that the oneor more second augmentations that were included in the second augmentedview have been replaced in the second augmented view with one or morethird augmentations that are one or more functional tags for retrievingand displaying the one or more second augmentations when the one or morefunctional tags are selected or activated, the one or more thirdaugmentations that are to replace the one or more second augmentationshaving substantially no content information included in the one or moresecond augmentations. For instance, the augmentation change indicatingdata relaying module 848 of the AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as wellas FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting usage data 56 that indicates that the oneor more second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) that were included inthe second augmented view 60 h (see FIG. 6H) have been replaced in thesecond augmented view 60 h with one or more third augmentations 64 h(see FIG. 6M) that are one or more functional tags for retrieving anddisplaying the one or more second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) whenthe one or more functional tags are selected or activated, the one ormore third augmentations 64 h (see FIG. 6M) that are to replace the oneor more second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) having substantially nocontent information (note that in the augmentation 64 h of FIG. 6M,there is no information related to visual item 62 c or informationincluded in the augmentation 64 e of FIG. 6H) included in the one ormore second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H).

Referring back to FIG. 12C, the usage data transmitting operation 906 ofFIG. 9 may additionally or alternatively include an operation 1268 fortransmitting the usage data including usage data that indicates that theone or more second augmentations are no longer being displayed. Forinstance, the usage data relaying module 106* including the augmentationchange indicating data relaying module 848 of the AR device 50* of FIG.7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting the usage data 56 whenthe augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848 transmitsusage data 56 that indicates that the one or more second augmentations64 e (see FIG. 6H) are no longer being displayed. For example, FIG. 6Qillustrates how augmentation 64 e (see FIG. 6H) is no longer beingdisplayed when the art book 66 is closed, thus removing the visual item62 c (see FIG. 6H) that the augmentation 64 de is affiliated with fromthe augmented view 60 h, thus causing the augmentation 64 e from beingdisplayed in the augmented view 60 q (see FIG. 6Q).

In some implementations, operation 1268 may further include or involvean operation 1269 for transmitting the usage data that indicates thatthe one or more second augmentations are no longer being displayed inresponse to the one or more second augmentations no longer beingdisplayed. For instance, the usage data relaying module 106* includingthe augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848 of the ARdevice 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B) transmitting theusage data 56 that indicates that the one or more second augmentations64 e (see FIG. 6H) are no longer being displayed in response to (e.g.,prompted by) the one or more second augmentations 64 e no longer beingdisplayed.

In the same or different implementations, operation 1268 mayadditionally or alternatively include an operation 1270 for transmittingthe usage data that indicates that the one or more second augmentationsare no longer being displayed in response to one or more visual itemsaffiliated with the one or more second augmentations no longer beingvisually detected. For instance, the usage data relaying module 106*including the augmentation change indicating data relaying module 848 ofthe AR device 50* of FIG. 7A or 7B (as well as FIG. 5A or 5B)transmitting the usage data 56 that indicates that the one or moresecond augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H) are no longer being displayed inresponse to one or more visual items 62 c (see FIGS. 6G and 6H)affiliated with the one or more second augmentations 64 e (see FIG. 6H)no longer being visually detected.

Referring now to FIG. 12D, in various implementations, the usage datatransmitting operation 906 of FIG. 9 may additionally or alternativelyinclude an operation 1271 for transmitting to the remote AR device theusage data, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to displayone or more third augmentations that directly or indirectly indicatethat the transmitted augmentation data was successfully received. Forinstance, the usage data relaying module 106* of the AR device 50* ofFIGS. 7A or 7B (as well as FIGS. 5A or 5B) transmitting or relaying tothe remote AR device 70 the usage data56, the usage data 56 tofacilitate the remote AR device 70 to display one or more thirdaugmentations that directly or indirectly indicate that the transmittedaugmentation data 55 was successfully received. For example, the one ormore third augmentations having flashing or particularly coloredmargin/border to indicate that the transmitted augmentation data 55 wassuccessfully received (or alternatively the one or more thirdaugmentations that is/are text or icons that directly indicate that theaugmentation data 55 was successfully received).

In the same or alternative implementations, the usage data transmittingoperation 906 may additionally or alternatively include an operation1272 for transmitting to the remote AR device the usage data, the usagedata to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations that directly or indirectly indicate that the one or moresecond augmentations was displayed. For instance, the usage datarelaying module 106* of the AR device 50* of FIGS. 7A or 7B (as well asFIGS. 5A or 5B) transmitting or relaying to the remote AR device 70 theusage datan56, the usage data 56 to facilitate the remote AR device 70to display one or more third augmentations that directly or indirectlyindicate that the one or more second augmentations was displayed by theAR device 10*.

In the same or alternative implementations, the usage data transmittingoperation 906 may additionally or alternatively include an operation1272 for transmitting to the remote AR device the usage data, the usagedata to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations that directly or indirectly indicate one or moredifferences between the one or more first augmentations and the one ormore second augmentations. For instance, the usage data relaying module106* of the AR device 50* of FIGS. 7A or 7B (as well as FIGS. 5A or 5B)transmitting or relaying to the remote AR device 70 the usage data 56,the usage data 56 to facilitate the remote AR device 70 to display oneor more third augmentations that directly or indirectly indicate one ormore differences (e.g., size difference, percentage difference, etc/)between the one or more first augmentations and the one or more secondaugmentations.

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that thevarious aspects described herein which can be implemented, individuallyand/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware,and/or any combination thereof can be viewed as being composed ofvarious types of “electrical circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein“electrical circuitry” includes, but is not limited to, electricalcircuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electricalcircuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitryhaving at least one application specific integrated circuit, electricalcircuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by acomputer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by acomputer program which at least partially carries out processes and/ordevices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computerprogram which at least partially carries out processes and/or devicesdescribed herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g.,forms of memory (e.g., random access, flash, read only, etc.)), and/orelectrical circuitry forming a communications device (e.g., a modem,communications switch, optical-electrical equipment, etc.). Those havingskill in the art will recognize that the subject matter described hereinmay be implemented in an analog or digital fashion or some combinationthereof.

It has been argued that because high-level programming languages usestrong abstraction (e.g., that they may resemble or share symbols withnatural languages), they are therefore a “purely mental construct.”(e.g., that “software”—a computer program or computer programming—issomehow an ineffable mental construct, because at a high level ofabstraction, it can be conceived and understood in the human mind). Thisargument has been used to characterize technical description in the formof functions/operations as somehow “abstract ideas.” In fact, intechnological arts (e.g., the information and communicationtechnologies) this is not true.

The fact that high-level programming languages use strong abstraction tofacilitate human understanding should not be taken as an indication thatwhat is expressed is an abstract idea. In fact, those skilled in the artunderstand that just the opposite is true. If a high-level programminglanguage is the tool used to implement a technical disclosure in theform of functions/operations, those skilled in the art will recognizethat, far from being abstract, imprecise, “fuzzy,” or “mental” in anysignificant semantic sense, such a tool is instead a nearincomprehensibly precise sequential specification of specificcomputational machines—the parts of which are built up byactivating/selecting such parts from typically more generalcomputational machines over time (e.g., clocked time). This fact issometimes obscured by the superficial similarities between high-levelprogramming languages and natural languages. These superficialsimilarities also may cause a glossing over of the fact that high-levelprogramming language implementations ultimately perform valuable work bycreating/controlling many different computational machines.

The many different computational machines that a high-level programminglanguage specifies are almost unimaginably complex. At base, thehardware used in the computational machines typically consists of sometype of ordered matter (e.g., traditional electronic devices (e.g.,transistors), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), quantum devices, mechanicalswitches, optics, fluidics, pneumatics, optical devices (e.g., opticalinterference devices), molecules, etc.) that are arranged to form logicgates. Logic gates are typically physical devices that may beelectrically, mechanically, chemically, or otherwise driven to changephysical state in order to create a physical reality of Boolean logic.

Logic gates may be arranged to form logic circuits, which are typicallyphysical devices that may be electrically, mechanically, chemically, orotherwise driven to create a physical reality of certain logicalfunctions. Types of logic circuits include such devices as multiplexers,registers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), computer memory, etc., eachtype of which may be combined to form yet other types of physicaldevices, such as a central processing unit (CPU)—the best known of whichis the microprocessor. A modern microprocessor will often contain morethan one hundred million logic gates in its many logic circuits (andoften more than a billion transistors). See, e.g., Wikipedia, Logicgates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gates (as of Jun. 5, 2012,21:03 GMT).

The logic circuits forming the microprocessor are arranged to provide amicroarchitecture that will carry out the instructions defined by thatmicroprocessor's defined Instruction Set Architecture. The InstructionSet Architecture is the part of the microprocessor architecture relatedto programming, including the native data types, instructions,registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt andexception handling, and external Input/Output. See, e.g., Wikipedia,Computer architecture,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture (as of Jun. 5, 2012,21:03 GMT).

The Instruction Set Architecture includes a specification of the machinelanguage that can be used by programmers to use/control themicroprocessor. Since the machine language instructions are such thatthey may be executed directly by the microprocessor, typically theyconsist of strings of binary digits, or bits. For example, a typicalmachine language instruction might be many bits long (e.g., 32, 64, or128 bit strings are currently common). A typical machine languageinstruction might take the form “11110000101011110000111100111111” (a 32bit instruction).

It is significant here that, although the machine language instructionsare written as sequences of binary digits, in actuality those binarydigits specify physical reality. For example, if certain semiconductorsare used to make the operations of Boolean logic a physical reality, theapparently mathematical bits “1” and “0” in a machine languageinstruction actually constitute a shorthand that specifies theapplication of specific voltages to specific wires. For example, in somesemiconductor technologies, the binary number “1” (e.g., logical “1”) ina machine language instruction specifies around +5 volts applied to aspecific “wire” (e.g., metallic traces on a printed circuit board) andthe binary number “0” (e.g., logical “0”) in a machine languageinstruction specifies around −5 volts applied to a specific “wire.” Inaddition to specifying voltages of the machines' configuration, suchmachine language instructions also select out and activate specificgroupings of logic gates from the millions of logic gates of the moregeneral machine. Thus, far from abstract mathematical expressions,machine language instruction programs, even though written as a stringof zeros and ones, specify many, many constructed physical machines orphysical machine states.

Machine language is typically incomprehensible by most humans (e.g., theabove example was just ONE instruction, and some personal computersexecute more than two billion instructions every second). See, e.g.,Wikipedia, Instructions per second,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_second (as of Jun. 5,2012, 21:04 GMT). Thus, programs written in machine language—which maybe tens of millions of machine language instructions long—areincomprehensible. In view of this, early assembly languages weredeveloped that used mnemonic codes to refer to machine languageinstructions, rather than using the machine language instructions'numeric values directly (e.g., for performing a multiplicationoperation, programmers coded the abbreviation “mult,” which representsthe binary number “011000” in MIPS machine code). While assemblylanguages were initially a great aid to humans controlling themicroprocessors to perform work, in time the complexity of the work thatneeded to be done by the humans outstripped the ability of humans tocontrol the microprocessors using merely assembly languages.

At this point, it was noted that the same tasks needed to be done overand over, and the machine language necessary to do those repetitivetasks was the same. In view of this, compilers were created. A compileris a device that takes a statement that is more comprehensible to ahuman than either machine or assembly language, such as “add 2+2 andoutput the result,” and translates that human understandable statementinto a complicated, tedious, and immense machine language code (e.g.,millions of 32, 64, or 128 bit length strings). Compilers thus translatehigh-level programming language into machine language.

This compiled machine language, as described above, is then used as thetechnical specification which sequentially constructs and causes theinteroperation of many different computational machines such thathumanly useful, tangible, and concrete work is done. For example, asindicated above, such machine language—the compiled version of thehigher-level language—functions as a technical specification whichselects out hardware logic gates, specifies voltage levels, voltagetransition timings, etc., such that the humanly useful work isaccomplished by the hardware.

Thus, a functional/operational technical description, when viewed by oneof skill in the art, is far from an abstract idea. Rather, such afunctional/operational technical description, when understood throughthe tools available in the art such as those just described, is insteadunderstood to be a humanly understandable representation of a hardwarespecification, the complexity and specificity of which far exceeds thecomprehension of most any one human. With this in mind, those skilled inthe art will understand that any such operational/functional technicaldescriptions—in view of the disclosures herein and the knowledge ofthose skilled in the art—may be understood as operations made intophysical reality by (a) one or more interchained physical machines, (b)interchained logic gates configured to create one or more physicalmachine(s) representative of sequential/combinatorial logic(s), (c)interchained ordered matter making up logic gates (e.g., interchainedelectronic devices (e.g., transistors), DNA, quantum devices, mechanicalswitches, optics, fluidics, pneumatics, molecules, etc.) that createphysical reality representative of logic(s), or (d) virtually anycombination of the foregoing. Indeed, any physical object which has astable, measurable, and changeable state may be used to construct amachine based on the above technical description. Charles Babbage, forexample, constructed the first computer out of wood and powered bycranking a handle.

Thus, far from being understood as an abstract idea, those skilled inthe art will recognize a functional/operational technical description asa humanly-understandable representation of one or more almostunimaginably complex and time sequenced hardware instantiations. Thefact that functional/operational technical descriptions might lendthemselves readily to high-level computing languages (or high-levelblock diagrams for that matter) that share some words, structures,phrases, etc. with natural language simply cannot be taken as anindication that such functional/operational technical descriptions areabstract ideas, or mere expressions of abstract ideas. In fact, asoutlined herein, in the technological arts this is simply not true. Whenviewed through the tools available to those of skill in the art, suchfunctional/operational technical descriptions are seen as specifyinghardware configurations of almost unimaginable complexity.

As outlined above, the reason for the use of functional/operationaltechnical descriptions is at least twofold. First, the use offunctional/operational technical descriptions allows near-infinitelycomplex machines and machine operations arising from interchainedhardware elements to be described in a manner that the human mind canprocess (e.g., by mimicking natural language and logical narrativeflow). Second, the use of functional/operational technical descriptionsassists the person of skill in the art in understanding the describedsubject matter by providing a description that is more or lessindependent of any specific vendor's piece(s) of hardware.

The use of functional/operational technical descriptions assists theperson of skill in the art in understanding the described subject mattersince, as is evident from the above discussion, one could easily,although not quickly, transcribe the technical descriptions set forth inthis document as trillions of ones and zeroes, billions of single linesof assembly-level machine code, millions of logic gates, thousands ofgate arrays, or any number of intermediate levels of abstractions.However, if any such low-level technical descriptions were to replacethe present technical description, a person of skill in the art couldencounter undue difficulty in implementing the disclosure, because sucha low-level technical description would likely add complexity without acorresponding benefit (e.g., by describing the subject matter utilizingthe conventions of one or more vendor-specific pieces of hardware).Thus, the use of functional/operational technical descriptions assiststhose of skill in the art by separating the technical descriptions fromthe conventions of any vendor-specific piece of hardware.

In view of the foregoing, the logical operations/functions set forth inthe present technical description are representative of static orsequenced specifications of various ordered-matter elements, in orderthat such specifications may be comprehensible to the human mind andadaptable to create many various hardware configurations. The logicaloperations/functions disclosed herein should be treated as such, andshould not be disparagingly characterized as abstract ideas merelybecause the specifications they represent are presented in a manner thatone of skill in the art can readily understand and apply in a mannerindependent of a specific vendor's hardware implementation.

Those having skill in the art will recognize that the state of the arthas progressed to the point where there is little distinct ion leftbetween hardware, software, and/or firmware implementations of aspectsof systems; the use of hardware, software, and/or firmware is generally(but not always, in that in certain contexts the choice between hardwareand software can become significant) a design choice representing costvs. efficiency tradeoffs. Those having skill in the art will appreciatethat there are various vehicles by which processes and/or systems and/orother technologies described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware,software, and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will varywith the context in which the processes and/or systems and/or othertechnologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determinesthat speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for amainly hardware and/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibilityis paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly softwareimplementation; or, yet again alternatively, the implementer may opt forsome combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware in one or moremachines, compositions of matter, and articles of manufacture, limitedto patentable subject matter under 35 USC 101. Hence, there are severalpossible vehicles by which the processes and/or devices and/or othertechnologies described herein may be effected, none of which isinherently superior to the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is achoice dependent upon the context in which the vehicle will be deployedand the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability)of the implementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that optical aspects of implementations will typically employoptically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.

In some implementations described herein, logic and similarimplementations may include software or other control structures.Electronic circuitry, for example, may have one or more paths ofelectrical current constructed and arranged to implement variousfunctions as described herein. In some implementations, one or moremedia may be configured to bear a device-detectable implementation whensuch media hold or transmit device detectable instructions operable toperform as described herein. In some variants, for example,implementations may include an update or modification of existingsoftware or firmware, or of gate arrays or programmable hardware, suchas by performing a reception of or a transmission of one or moreinstructions in relation to one or more operations described herein.Alternatively or additionally, in some variants, an implementation mayinclude special-purpose hardware, software, firmware components, and/orgeneral-purpose components executing or otherwise invokingspecial-purpose components. Specifications or other implementations maybe transmitted by one or more instances of tangible transmission mediaas described herein, optionally by packet transmission or otherwise bypassing through distributed media at various times.

Alternatively or additionally, implementations may include executing aspecial-purpose instruction sequence or invoking circuitry for enabling,triggering, coordinating, requesting, or otherwise causing one or moreoccurrences of virtually any functional operations described herein. Insome variants, operational or other logical descriptions herein may beexpressed as source code and compiled or otherwise invoked as anexecutable instruction sequence. In some contexts, for example,implementations may be provided, in whole or in part, by source code,such as C++, or other code sequences. In other implementations, sourceor other code implementation, using commercially available and/ortechniques in the art, may be compiled//implemented/translated/convertedinto a high-level descriptor language (e.g., initially implementingdescribed technologies in C or C++ programming language and thereafterconverting the programming language implementation into alogic-synthesizable language implementation, a hardware descriptionlanguage implementation, a hardware design simulation implementation,and/or other such similar mode(s) of expression). For example, some orall of a logical expression (e.g., computer programming languageimplementation) may be manifested as a Verilog-type hardware description(e.g., via Hardware Description Language (HDL) and/or Very High SpeedIntegrated Circuit Hardware Descriptor Language (VHDL)) or othercircuitry model which may then be used to create a physicalimplementation having hardware (e.g., an Application Specific IntegratedCircuit). Those skilled in the art will recognize how to obtain,configure, and optimize suitable transmission or computational elements,material supplies, actuators, or other structures in light of theseteachings.

While particular aspects of the present subject matter described hereinhave been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modificationsmay be made without departing from the subject matter described hereinand its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are toencompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as arewithin the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein.It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.).

It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specificnumber of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intentwill be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of suchrecitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to claims containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “atleast one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use ofdefinite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, evenif a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitlyrecited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitationshould typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number(e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without othermodifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or morerecitations).

Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “atleast one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a constructionis intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understandthe convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C”would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone,C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A,B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general sucha construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that typically a disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms unless context dictates otherwise. For example, the phrase “Aor B” will be typically understood to include the possibilities of “A”or “B” or “A and B.”

With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art willappreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed inany order. Also, although various operational flows are presented in asequence(s), it should be understood that the various operations may beperformed in other orders than those which are illustrated, or may beperformed concurrently. Examples of such alternate orderings may includeoverlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental,preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variantorderings, unless context dictates otherwise. Furthermore, terms like“responsive to,” “related to,” or other past-tense adjectives aregenerally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictatesotherwise.

This application may make reference to one or more trademarks, e.g., aword, letter, symbol, or device adopted by one manufacturer or merchantand used to identify and/or distinguish his or her product from those ofothers. Trademark names used herein are set forth in such language thatmakes clear their identity, that distinguishes them from commondescriptive nouns, that have fixed and definite meanings, or, in many ifnot all cases, are accompanied by other specific identification usingterms not covered by trademark. In addition, trademark names used hereinhave meanings that are well-known and defined in the literature, or donot refer to products or compounds for which knowledge of one or moretrade secrets is required in order to divine their meaning. Alltrademarks referenced in this application are the property of theirrespective owners, and the appearance of one or more trademarks in thisapplication does not diminish or otherwise adversely affect the validityof the one or more trademarks. All trademarks, registered orunregistered, that appear in this application are assumed to include aproper trademark symbol, e.g., the circle R or bracketed capitalization(e.g., [trademark name]), even when such trademark symbol does notexplicitly appear next to the trademark. To the extent a trademark isused in a descriptive manner to refer to a product or process, thattrademark should be interpreted to represent the corresponding productor process as of the date of the filing of this patent application.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specificexemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies arerepresentative of more general processes and/or devices and/ortechnologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filedherewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: an augmentation dataacquiring module configured to acquire from a remote augmented reality(AR) device via one or more wireless and/or networks augmentation dataassociated with one or more first augmentations that were remotelydisplayed at the remote AR device, the one or more first augmentationshaving been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scenethat was displayed by the remote AR device; an augmentation presentingmodule configured to present locally one or more second augmentations inresponse, at least in part, to the acquired augmentation data, the oneor more second augmentations to be presented through a second augmentedview of a second actual scene; and a usage data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device, via the one or morewireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed backto the remote AR device indicating usage information related at least tousage or non-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data,the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or morethird augmentations.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentationdata acquiring module configured to acquire from a remote augmentedreality (AR) device via one or more wireless and/or networksaugmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations thatwere remotely displayed at the remote AR device, the one or more firstaugmentations having been included in a first augmented view of a firstactual scene that was displayed by the remote AR device comprises: anaugmentation content information acquiring module configured to acquiredata that provides content information related to the one or more firstaugmentations.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentation dataacquiring module configured to acquire from a remote augmented reality(AR) device via one or more wireless and/or networks augmentation dataassociated with one or more first augmentations that were remotelydisplayed at the remote AR device, the one or more first augmentationshaving been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scenethat was displayed by the remote AR device comprises: a visual iteminformation acquiring module configured to acquire data that providesinformation related to one or more visual items that are affiliated withthe one or more first augmentations and that were present in the firstactual scene.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentation dataacquiring module configured to acquire from a remote augmented reality(AR) device via one or more wireless and/or networks augmentation dataassociated with one or more first augmentations that were remotelydisplayed at the remote AR device, the one or more first augmentationshaving been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scenethat was displayed by the remote AR device comprises: an augmentationformat information acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides format information related to one or more formats of the one ormore first augmentations.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein saidaugmentation format information acquiring module configured to acquiredata that provides format information related to one or more formats ofthe one or more first augmentations comprises: a visibility ruleacquiring module configured to acquire data that provides one or morevisibility rules that include one or more directives for displaying theone or more first augmentations.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein saidvisibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that include one or moredirectives for displaying the one or more first augmentations comprises:a visibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that directs the one or more firstaugmentations to be affiliated with one or more specified visual itemsand that directs inclusion of the one or more first augmentations in anaugmented view of an actual scene.
 7. The system of claim 5, whereinsaid visibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that include one or moredirectives for displaying the one or more first augmentations comprises:a visibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that directs the one or more firstaugmentations to be at least semi-transparent in an augmented view of anactual scene in order to prevent one or more priority visual items thatare present in the actual scene from being at least completelyobfuscated by the one or more first augmentations in the augmented view.8. The system of claim 7, wherein said visibility rule acquiring moduleconfigured to acquire data that provides one or more visibility rulesthat directs the one or more first augmentations to be at leastsemi-transparent in an augmented view of an actual scene in order toprevent one or more priority visual items that are present in the actualscene from being at least completely obfuscated by the one or more firstaugmentations in the augmented view comprises: a visibility ruleacquiring module configured to acquire data that provides one or morevisibility rules that directs the one or more first augmentations to beconditionally transparent in the augmented view of the actual scene solong as the one or more priority visual items are detected as beingpresent in the actual scene.
 9. The system of claim 5, wherein saidvisibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that include one or moredirectives for displaying the one or more first augmentations comprises:a visibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire one or morevisibility rules that direct display of one or more functionalaugmentations.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein said visibility ruleacquiring module configured to acquire one or more visibility rules thatdirect display of one or more functional augmentations comprises: avisibility rule acquiring module configured to acquire data thatprovides one or more visibility rules that direct display of one or morefunctional augmentations that are in a form of one or more functionaltags that when selected or activated results in display of informationrelated to one or more visual items present in an augmented view and/orin an actual scene.
 11. The system of claim 5, wherein said visibilityrule acquiring module configured to acquire data that provides one ormore visibility rules that include one or more directives for displayingthe one or more first augmentations comprises: a visibility ruleacquiring module configured to acquire data that provides one or morevisibility rules that directs one or more identified priority visualitems to have visibility priority over the one or more firstaugmentations in an augmented view of an actual scene.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said augmentation data acquiring module configured toacquire from a remote augmented reality (AR) device via one or morewireless and/or networks augmentation data associated with one or morefirst augmentations that were remotely displayed at the remote ARdevice, the one or more first augmentations having been included in afirst augmented view of a first actual scene that was displayed by theremote AR device comprises: a request transmitting module configured totransmit a request to the remote AR device for the augmentation data.13. The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentation presenting moduleconfigured to present locally one or more second augmentations inresponse, at least in part, to the acquired augmentation data, the oneor more second augmentations to be presented through a second augmentedview of a second actual scene comprises: an augmentation presentingmodule configured to present locally by presenting the one or moresecond augmentations in the second augmented view via one or moredisplay monitors.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentationpresenting module configured to present locally one or more secondaugmentations in response, at least in part, to the acquiredaugmentation data, the one or more second augmentations to be presentedthrough a second augmented view of a second actual scene comprises: anaugmentation presenting module configured to present one or more secondaugmentations in the second augmented view that are same orsubstantially same as the one or more first augmentations that wereremotely displayed at the remote AR device.
 15. The system of claim 1,wherein said augmentation presenting module configured to presentlocally one or more second augmentations in response, at least in part,to the acquired augmentation data, the one or more second augmentationsto be presented through a second augmented view of a second actual scenecomprises: a modified augmentation presenting module configured topresent one or more second augmentations in the second augmented viewthat is or are modified version or versions of the one or more firstaugmentations that were remotely displayed at the remote AR device. 16.The system of claim 1, wherein said augmentation presenting moduleconfigured to present locally one or more second augmentations inresponse, at least in part, to the acquired augmentation data, the oneor more second augmentations to be presented through a second augmentedview of a second actual scene comprises: an augmentation data andcontext based augmentation providing module configured to provide theone or more second augmentations based on the received augmentation dataand based on environmental context in which the second augmented view isto be displayed.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein said augmentationdata and context based augmentation providing module configured toprovide the one or more second augmentations based on the receivedaugmentation data and based on environmental context in which the secondaugmented view is to be displayed comprises: an augmentation data andcontext based augmentation providing module configured to provide theone or more second augmentations based on content information and one ormore visibility rules provided by the received augmentation data andbased on the environmental context in which the second augmented view isto be displayed.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein said augmentationdata and context based augmentation providing module configured toprovide the one or more second augmentations based on the receivedaugmentation data and based on environmental context in which the secondaugmented view is to be displayed comprises: an augmentation data andcontext based augmentation providing module configured to provide theone or more second augmentations based on content information and one ormore visibility rules provided by the received augmentation data, basedon one or more visibility rules provided by one or more sources otherthan the remote AR device, and based on the environmental context inwhich the second augmented view is to be displayed.
 19. The system ofclaim 18, wherein said augmentation data and context based augmentationproviding module configured to provide the one or more secondaugmentations based on content information and one or more visibilityrules provided by the received augmentation data, based on one or morevisibility rules provided by one or more sources other than the remoteAR device, and based on the environmental context in which the secondaugmented view is to be displayed comprises: an augmentation data andcontext based augmentation providing module configured to provide theone or more second augmentations based on content information and one ormore visibility rules provided by the received augmentation data, basedon one or more visibility rules that were locally provided, and based onthe environmental context in which the second augmented view is to bedisplayed.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein said augmentation dataand context based augmentation providing module configured to providethe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on environmental context in which the second augmentedview is to be displayed comprises: an augmentation data and contextbased augmentation providing module configured to provide the one ormore second augmentations based on content information provided by thereceived augmentation data, based on one or more locally providedvisibility rules, and based on the environmental context in which thesecond augmented view is to be displayed.
 21. The system of claim 16,wherein said augmentation data and context based augmentation providingmodule configured to provide the one or more second augmentations basedon the received augmentation data and based on environmental context inwhich the second augmented view is to be displayed comprises: anaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing moduleconfigured to provide the one or more second augmentations based on thereceived augmentation data and based on social networking data thatindicates the environmental context in which the second augmented viewis to be displayed and that were obtained through one or more socialnetworking sources.
 22. The system of claim 16, wherein saidaugmentation data and context based augmentation providing moduleconfigured to provide the one or more second augmentations based on thereceived augmentation data and based on environmental context in whichthe second augmented view is to be displayed comprises: an augmentationdata and context based augmentation providing module configured toprovide the one or more second augmentations based on the receivedaugmentation data and based on audio data indicative of theenvironmental context in which the second augmented view is to bedisplayed.
 23. The system of claim 16, wherein said augmentation dataand context based augmentation providing module configured to providethe one or more second augmentations based on the received augmentationdata and based on environmental context in which the second augmentedview is to be displayed comprises: an augmentation data and contextbased augmentation providing module configured to provide the one ormore second augmentations based on the received augmentation data andbased on movement data indicative of the environmental context in whichthe second augmented view is to be displayed.
 24. The system of claim 1,wherein said augmentation presenting module configured to presentlocally one or more second augmentations in response, at least in part,to the acquired augmentation data, the one or more second augmentationsto be presented through a second augmented view of a second actual scenecomprises: a difference indicator presenting module configured topresent one or more indicators that indicate differences between the oneor more first augmentations and the one or more second augmentations.25. The system of claim 24, wherein said difference indicator presentingmodule configured to present one or more indicators that indicatedifferences between the one or more first augmentations and the one ormore second augmentations comprises: a modification indicator presentingmodule configured to present one or more modifications that were appliedto the one or more first augmentations in order to generate the one ormore second augmentations.
 26. The system of claim 17, wherein saiddifference indicator presenting module configured to present one or moreindicators that indicate differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations comprises: adegree of correspondence presenting module configured to present one ormore degrees of correspondence between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations.
 27. The systemof claim 17, wherein said difference indicator presenting moduleconfigured to present one or more indicators that indicate differencesbetween the one or more first augmentations and the one or more secondaugmentations comprises: a degree of difference presenting moduleconfigured to present one or more degrees of difference between the oneor more first augmentations and the one or more second augmentations.28. The system of claim 1, wherein said usage data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device, via the one or morewireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed backto the remote AR device indicating usage information related at least tousage or non-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data,the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or morethird augmentations comprises: a usage data relaying module configuredto relay back to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that theaugmentation data was successfully received.
 29. The system of claim 28,wherein said usage data relaying module configured to relay back to theremote AR device usage data that indicates that the augmentation datawas successfully received comprises: a usage data relaying moduleconfigured to relay the usage data back to the remote AR device inresponse to receiving the augmentation data successfully.
 30. The systemof claim 1, wherein said usage data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device, via the one or more wireless and/ornetworks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed back to the remote ARdevice indicating usage information related at least to usage ornon-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data, the usagedata to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations comprises: a usage data relaying module configured torelay back to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that theone or more second augmentations have been displayed.
 31. The system ofclaim 30, wherein said usage data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that the one ormore second augmentations have been displayed comprises: a usage datarelaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device theusage data in response to the one or more second augmentations beinglocally displayed.
 32. The system of claim 1, wherein said usage datarelaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device, viathe one or more wireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data tobe relayed back to the remote AR device indicating usage informationrelated at least to usage or non-usage, by the system, of the receivedaugmentation data, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device todisplay one or more third augmentations comprises: an augmentationrelaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device usagedata that includes the one or more second augmentations.
 33. The systemof claim 1, wherein said usage data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device, via the one or more wireless and/ornetworks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed back to the remote ARdevice indicating usage information related at least to usage ornon-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data, the usagedata to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations comprises: a difference indicating data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device usage data thatindicates one or more differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations.
 34. The systemof claim 33, wherein said difference indicating data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device usage data thatindicates one or more differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations comprises: amodification indicating data relaying module configured to relay back tothe remote AR device usage data that indicates one or more modificationsthat were made to the one or more first augmentations in order togenerate the one or more second augmentations.
 35. The system of claim33, wherein said difference indicating data relaying module configuredto relay back to the remote AR device usage data that indicates one ormore differences between the one or more first augmentations and the oneor more second augmentations comprises: a degree of correspondenceindicating data relaying module configured to relay back to the remoteAR device usage data that indicates one or more degrees ofcorrespondence between the one or more first augmentations that waspresented by the remote AR device and the one or more secondaugmentations that was presented locally.
 36. The system of claim 33,wherein said difference indicating data relaying module configured torelay back to the remote AR device usage data that indicates one or moredifferences between the one or more first augmentations and the one ormore second augmentations comprises: a degree of difference indicatingdata relaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR deviceusage data that indicates one or more degrees of difference between theone or more first augmentations that was presented by the remote ARdevice and the one or more second augmentations that was presentedlocally.
 37. The system of claim 1, wherein said usage data relayingmodule configured to relay back to the remote AR device, via the one ormore wireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data to be relayedback to the remote AR device indicating usage information related atleast to usage or non-usage, by the system, of the received augmentationdata, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display oneor more third augmentations comprises: an augmentation change indicatingdata relaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR deviceusage data that indicates changes to the display of the one or moresecond augmentations.
 38. The system of claim 37, wherein saidaugmentation change indicating data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates changes to thedisplay of the one or more second augmentations comprises: anaugmentation change indicating data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that one or morethird augmentations have replaced in the second augmented view the oneor more second augmentations.
 39. The system of claim 38, wherein saidaugmentation change indicating data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that one or morethird augmentations have replaced in the second augmented view the oneor more second augmentations comprises: an augmentation changeindicating data relaying module configured to relay back to the remoteAR device usage data that indicates that one or more third augmentationsthat include less content information than the one or more secondaugmentations have replaced the one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view.
 40. The system of claim 38, wherein saidaugmentation change indicating data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that one or morethird augmentations have replaced in the second augmented view the oneor more second augmentations comprises: an augmentation changeindicating data relaying module configured to relay back to the remoteAR device usage data that indicates that one or more third augmentationsthat are one or more functional tags for retrieving and displaying theone or more second augmentations have replaced the one or more secondaugmentations in the second augmented view.
 41. The system of claim 40,wherein said augmentation change indicating data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device usage data thatindicates that one or more third augmentations that are one or morefunctional tags for retrieving and displaying the one or more secondaugmentations have replaced the one or more second augmentations in thesecond augmented view comprises: an augmentation change indicating datarelaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device usagedata that indicates that one or more third augmentations that are one ormore functional tags for retrieving and displaying the one or moresecond augmentations have replaced the one or more second augmentationsin the second augmented view, the one or more third augmentations thatare to replace the one or more second augmentations having substantiallyno content information included in the one or more second augmentations.42. The system of claim 1, wherein said usage data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device, via the one or morewireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed backto the remote AR device indicating usage information related at least tousage or non-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data,the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or morethird augmentations comprises: an augmentation change indicating datarelaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device usagedata that indicates that the one or more second augmentations are nolonger being locally presented.
 43. The system of claim 42, wherein saidaugmentation change indicating data relaying module configured to relayback to the remote AR device usage data that indicates that the one ormore second augmentations are no longer being locally presentedcomprises: an augmentation change indicating data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device the usage data thatindicates that the one or more second augmentations are no longer beinglocally presented, the relaying back to the remote AR device of theusage data being in response to one or more visual items affiliated withthe one or more second augmentations no longer being visually detected.44. The system of claim 1, wherein said usage data relaying moduleconfigured to relay back to the remote AR device, via the one or morewireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage data to be relayed backto the remote AR device indicating usage information related at least tousage or non-usage, by the system, of the received augmentation data,the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device to display one or morethird augmentations comprises: a usage data relaying module configuredto relay back to the remote AR device the usage data, the usage data tofacilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations that directly or indirectly indicate that the transmittedaugmentation data was successfully received.
 45. The system of claim 1,wherein said usage data relaying module configured to relay back to theremote AR device, via the one or more wireless and/or networks, usagedata, the usage data to be relayed back to the remote AR deviceindicating usage information related at least to usage or non-usage, bythe system, of the received augmentation data, the usage data tofacilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations comprises: a usage data relaying module configured torelay back to the remote AR device the usage data, the usage data tofacilitate the remote AR device to display one or more thirdaugmentations that directly or indirectly indicate that the one or moresecond augmentations was displayed.
 46. The system of claim 1, whereinsaid usage data relaying module configured to relay back to the remoteAR device, via the one or more wireless and/or networks, usage data, theusage data to be relayed back to the remote AR device indicating usageinformation related at least to usage or non-usage, by the system, ofthe received augmentation data, the usage data to facilitate the remoteAR device to display one or more third augmentations comprises: a usagedata relaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR devicethe usage data, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device todisplay one or more third augmentations that directly or indirectlyindicate one or more differences between the one or more firstaugmentations and the one or more second augmentations.
 47. An articleof manufacture, comprising: a non-transitory storage medium bearing: oneor more instructions for acquiring from a remote augmented reality (AR)device via one or more wireless and/or networks augmentation dataassociated with one or more first augmentations that were remotelydisplayed at a the remote AR device, the one or more first augmentationshaving been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scenethat was displayed by the remote AR device; one or more instructions forpresenting locally one or more second augmentations in response, atleast in part, to the acquired augmentation data, the one or more secondaugmentations to be presented through a second augmented view of asecond actual scene; and one or more instructions for relaying via theone or more wireless and/or networks usage data to the remote AR device,the usage data to be relayed back to the AR device indicating usageinformation related at least to usage or non-usage of the receivedaugmentation data, the usage data to facilitate the remote AR device todisplay one or more third augmentations.
 48. A wearable augmentedreality (AR) device, comprising: a coupling device for coupling thewearable AR device to a user's head; one or more display monitors; anaugmentation data acquiring module configured to acquire from a remoteaugmented reality (AR) device via one or more wireless and/or networksaugmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations thatwere remotely displayed at a the remote AR device, the one or more firstaugmentations having been included in a first augmented view of a firstactual scene that was displayed by the remote AR device; an augmentationpresenting module configured to present locally one or more secondaugmentations in response, at least in part, to the acquiredaugmentation data, the one or more second augmentations to be presentedthrough a second augmented view of a second actual scene; and a usagedata relaying module configured to relay back to the remote AR device,via the one or more wireless and/or networks, usage data, the usage datato be relayed back to the remote AR device indicating usage informationrelated at least to usage or non-usage, by the wearable AR device, ofthe received augmentation data, the usage data to facilitate the remoteAR device to display one or more third augmentations.